Book excerpt: Think teenagers don't read as much as they used to? Drop in any bookstore and you're likely to find a teenager sitting cross-legged on the floor, paging through the latest Zits book. Zits chronicles the daily lives of a teen in a way that's not done in the popular media-with respect. "Having teenagers in the house is like having a front-row seat to one of life's great passages," says Jim Borgman. "Zits tries to respect that period by taking a sympathetic view of all the players involved-the parents, as well as the kids." "We like to think of Zits as the antidote to all of the bad stuff you read about teenagers today," adds Jerry Scott. "Many people believe that modern adolescence is all about gangs, guns, drugs, and AIDS. While all of that exists, Zits takes a look at the teen years from ground level, where, for most kids, relationships, friendships, school, and sports are the stuff of daily life." Zits levels the playing field and often causes (gasp!) communication to occur between kids and their parents. Appearing in over 1,200 newspapers worldwide, this enormously popular comic strip has been a comic staple since it was first syndicated by King Features in 1997. .