DC Comics: The Ultimate Character Guide

Can you tell the difference between The Green Lantern and The Green Arrow, or Mister Terrific and Mister Mxyzptlk?  You may be in need of DC Comics: The Ultimate Character Guide.  This handy volume is extremely popular at our Belmont site where teens and adults alike are eager to expand their DC comics lexicon.  Prefaced by the shortest of introductions and a table of contents, over 200 heroes and villains from “the DC Universe” are listed and then presented in alphabetical order, beginning with Adam Strange and ending with Zoom.  Each character or group receives its own page.  Layout consistently features the character’s name, a one to three sentence summary of the character, vital stats (real name, occupation, height, weight, base, allies and foes), and boxed text describing the character’s powers.  The best-loved element are the accompanying illustrations, although they are only credited in the back as part of a mass “artists credits,” which is, in fact, the only backmatter.  Perfect for comic book fans, developing readers, and developing schema, this book may also be of interest to educators looking for a hi-lo non-fiction text for an introductory lesson on features of informational text and the sub-genre of visually busy non-fiction that DK practically invented. --Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Snider, Brandon T.   DC Comics: The Ultimate Character Guide.  New York:  DK Publishing, 2011.  Print.