X-Men: Magneto Testament

X-Men: Magneto Testament
By Greg Pak
Illustrated by Carmine Di Giandomenico
ISBN (HC): 978-0785138235
ISBN (TPB): 978-0785126409

To Sum: This is an amazing piece of work that can be read without ever knowing of the X-Men or who Magneto is. (Although, you maybe confused by the title.) Disregarding anything that comes later on and the whole mythos of the X-Men, this book does an amazing job of showing what it was like before and during the Holocaust. There is even several pages of notes at the back, describing where an image came from, or why something is in there. This book is a work of love, of dedication, and it shows.

To do what this section says, this book is about a family focusing in on the youngest of them, and what life was like before and during the Holocaust.

What to watch out for: Nothing really. Yes, it deals with the Holocaust, so there is death, but much of it is handled off-screen. The reader is made aware of what is going on, so it's not a sanitized version of the Holocaust.

Where to shelve: They've done a good job making this accessible for the early teens, but not too much that what happened is dumbed down. There's a guide in the back for teachers to use, but this could easily go into both adult and YA. The amount of research done is chronicled in the footnotes, which may interest some adults, and there is a list of additional websites where YA patrons might go to find out more.
It should be noted that Diamond publishers list this title as being 16+. It's also Marvel Knights publication, which is intended 15+, and there is also a Parental Advisory on the back (it's small and on the bottom right). However, there's also a teacher's guide in there intended for use for grades 7-10.

How I heard of this: Well, truth be told I ordered it in based off of Amazon, I believe. However, one of the guys that regularly checks stuff out of my section told me I had to read, and read it now - he had just returned it.

Other Reviews:

http://www.gregpak.com/magneto/ (The author's website, however it does show just how many awards this book has won.)
http://comicsplusblog.com/?p=765 (the person disagrees with me, but I'm cool with that)
http://acomicbookblog.com/comic-book-blog/4-graphic-novels-to-read-in-2010-claire/
http://ichliebecomics.blogspot.com/2009/02/magneto-testament.html
http://www.fistfullofcomics.com/v2/2009/10/16/off-the-rack-x-men-magneto-testament/
http://www.diamondbookshelf.com/public/default.asp?t=1&m=1&c=20&s=422&ai=85212