Stitches: A Memoir

by David Small

Stitches is a graphic novel retelling the creator's life as a child in a dysfunctional family. As a small boy, David was plagued with sinus and respiratory problems. As a treatment, David was given hundreds of X-rays by his father, a radiologist. His father believed that the powers of radiation could help solve sinus problems.

David grows up in a cold world, where each of his family members has retreated into their own world. His mother is cruel. His older brother is preoccupied with his own method of escape (drumming). His father just seems, well, absent.

Years later, David develops a "growth" on his neck. After seeing a doctor, who says that it is probably benign but should be taken care of, it takes his parents three years to take him to the surgeon.

David believes that he is having surgery to remove his cyst, but when he wakes up he can no longer speak. There is no explanation. His parents leave fourteen year old David to make the adjustment himself.

But he doesn't adjust. He rebels, and who could blame him?

I 'll leave the synopsis right there. This is a sad, tragic story. Wally Lamb style, for sure, but true. But it works. Why? It's not over-wrung with emotion. You can feel how David develops his own protective armor, his own cold separation. And yet you can still feel how disappointed the boy is. I'm not sure if this is communicated via the drawings or via the terse dialogue that goes on.

But it's good, and it's a real quick read (< 1 hour). It ends abruptly, and I can see how many wouldn't like it. But I liked the ending a lot.

Grade: B

Pitch Black: A Graphic Memoir

This is a graphic memoir about a man who lives in the unused tunnels and rooms of the NYC subway. I believe such individuals have been given the nickname "moles" or "mole people." This was a super-quick read: the size of a normal children's picture book. In fact, I thought it was a civil rights type of book for children. Needless to say, it wasn't. I didn't really care for it much with the exception of two points:
1. There is a YA novel called Slake's Limbo, which is about a young boy in the foster care system who escapes into the underground world of the subway to escape abuse.
2. The line: Just cause you can't see don't mean aint nothing there.

For a much more sophisticated review, check out this out from the NYT.

Grade: C+

Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi

Amulet - A graphic novel
Written and illustrated by Kazu Kibuishi
Published by Scholastic Graphix (same people who put out Bone)

Yesterday I bought this graphic novel and I can only say that I wish that I had bought it when I first saw it months ago.

Emily and Navin are two children who must move to an old family home after their father dies. The house used to belong to their great-grandfather, Silas Charnon, a puzzle-maker. It is full of oddities, and Emily stumbles upon an amulet in her grandfather's workroom. At night, the mother goes downstairs into the basement to explore scary sounds in the night. She is eaten by a monster but is still alive inside its body. Emily and Navin follow the monster down into another world called Alledia. While seaching, they find the house of Silas Charnon, who is alive but on his deathbed. He has been waiting all this time for Emily to accept the power of the amulet - the power to rule over Alledia. In hopes of finding her mother, and perhaps regaining what she misses most, Emily accepts this responsibility, and with the help of Navin and a group of charming robots, they set off to get their mother back.

The graphics are awesome, and all I can say is that this book is top-notch! Amulet ends as a bit of a cliff-hanger, but the second one is in production.

I truly cannot wait to 1) share this book with my classes and 2) read the second one!

Grade: A+

The picture above is one that I designed myelf, using Scholastic's Amulet site. Getting it from that site to this site with text boxes required some screen capturing, Word, and some more screen captures.

Middle School Is Worse Than Meatloaf: A Year Told Through Stuff

Middle School Is Worse Than Meatloaf: A Year Told Through Stuff
by Jennifer Holm. Illustrated by Elicia Castaldi

Graphic novel? Scrapbook? This is the story of Ginny Davis, spanning her 7th grade year. Ginny starts off the new year like we all do: with high hopes and optimistic goals. But this is middle school and there are more downs than ups for Ginny who experiences the humiliation of a bad home hair dye to the adjustment of gaining a step-father to seeing her brother sent away to military school.

And the medium? The story is literally told through stuff. To-do lists, post-its from family members, notes from teachers, notes passed from Ginny to her friends during class. Bills, report cards, drawings, poems, instant messaging. Everything that is on each page connects to and enhances the story line. One of the most appealing parts of this book is looking at each object and seeing how it adds to the story or gives you more info.

This is a great book for reluctant readers.

This is also a great book for adults who want to take a quick trip back middle school. While we might not all know what it's like to get a new step-dad or the experience of breaking your arm trying to rescue your cape-wearing little brother, we do remember the high hopes of middle school: the wished for boyfriend, the slow accumulation of money from babysitting that is so quickly wasted on lip gloss and eyeshadow, the wheeling and dealing with mom and dad... Books like this (and Diary of a Wimpy Kid) help me remember and regain empathy for the plight of the middle-schooler.
Grade: A+

BTW, this is my 35th book since June.

Dracula - A Ben Caldwell Cartoon Comic

Dracula - A Ben Caldwell Cartoon Comic
Adapted by Michael Mucci. Drawn by Ben Caldwell. Published by Sterling.

This is an excellent adaptation of Stoker's Dracula. All of the important parts of the book remain intact. The graphics rock. They're hip, modern, and thoroughly charming. Best of all, I think it would equally appeal to both girls and boys. I would love to teach this to my kids. My only complaint is the lack of page numbering. It's a pretty significant size, and if I were to use this in the classroom, it would need page numbers.

This graphic novel did bring up the following thought: How enhanced is my enjoyment of this story because I have read the original? I can only assume that I get greater satisfaction from this version because of my familiarity with Stoker's book. But if that is the case, how well would someone who has never read the original (or seen a movie version) assess the comic version? Would there be gaps in their comprehension of the story line?

Grade: A+

(Photo courtesy of www.barnesandnoble.com)

The Last Straw - Finally!

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw (YA) by Jeff Kinney.


The Last Straw ... but, thankfully, not Greg Heffley's last book. This is another charming, humorous addition to the Wimpy Kid series.

As an adult, I really enjoy this series because I think it portrays preteens very well. While Greg suffers from being genuinely misunderstood by adults, he also digs himself deeper into trouble with his own typical adolescent egoism (and laziness).

All in all, a great read. I love the layout, the font, and the drawings. More than a graphic novel, but it definitely reads just as fast as any Garfield comic book.

Grade: A

More Reads

Night Shift by Stephen King.
Excellent, excellent book of short stories. In particular, "Night Surf" was unbelievable. One of the best endings to a short story that I have read in ages.

Bone (YA) by Jeff Smith.
After a few years of recommending this graphic novel to kids, I finally took my own advice. Now, I am not a fan of comics or graphic novels. Although my kid sister went through an exceptionally long, intense animae/manga phase, I couldn't bear to read one. I really did enjoy the Maus series, and I have read City of Light, City of Dark by Avi. But that's about it.

It didn't take me long to get into this; it only took me the will power to get over my stubborn reluctance to go comic book. The illustrations are charming (I think that probably sounds like an insult, but it's not meant to be), and easy on the eye. The three characters from Bone, when together, got on my nerves immensely. However, when alone were bearable. Soon after the first few pages, Fone Bone, the protagonist, is separated from the others. He meets up with several fantastical characters: a talking preying mantis-type creature and its giant cousin, man-sized rats, and a dragon. All of whom can talk. He is then helped by the beautiful Thorn, a human girl, and her wily grandma.

This is high fantasy. But it works. I'm eager to get the second edition.

Grade: A