Module 13: Graphic Novels & Series Books

April 22, 2018 

Module 13: Graphic Novels & Series Books

Title:

Stitches: a memoir

Genre: Young Adult Graphic Novel/Memoir

Book Summary:

David Small never felt like he fit in with his family. Mom was always angry for reasons he didn't understand and his dad, a doctor, spent most of his time at the hospital where he worked.  He was a sickly baby and at the age of ten, a family friend noticed a lump on his throat.  After many tests and an operation, he woke to discover he was mute, unable to talk about a whisper. His parents never explained what was wrong with him and years later David discovers that he was diagnosed with cancer, however, his parents chose to keep it a secret from him. Because of that betrayal, David grew into an angry and troubled teen, transferring from school to school, until he finally left home at the age of sixteen, never to reconcile with his parents. 

APA Reference of Book: 

Small, D. (2009). Stitches a memoir. New York: W.W. Norton.

Impression:

This memoir blew me away. The fact that parents would lie to children about their condition baffled me. I get the idea of protecting your kids from the possibility of being hurt, however, there is always a price to pay. In this case, it was David never speaking his parents again. The author touched on some touch issues, such as childhood cancer and the betrayal of his parents. I liked the way that Mr. Small illustrated the book. Some pages were both pictures and words, whereas some were just pictures. He was able to illustrate the emotions in a way that the reader, no matter what age, could empathize with the character. When David wakes from his surgery, to find that he has can only "squawk", no longer talk, the anger on his face is easily identified. He is drawn with a persistent scowl on his face. While there is some choice language, I would recommend that this book should be included in a high school collection. There are many issues that kids can relate to, such as the struggle between parents and children and how it feels to feel different when around others.

Professional Review:

Emotionally raw, artistically compelling and psychologically devastating graphic memoir of childhood trauma.

An award-winning illustrator of children's books (That Book Woman, 2008, etc.), Small narrates this memoir from various perspectives of his boyhood in the 1950s. He considered his radiologist father one of the "soldiers of science, and their weapon was the X-ray…They were miraculous wonder rays that would cure anything." Or so it seemed to a young boy who realized early on that his family was what now would be labeled "dysfunctional." His mother was cold, neurotic and acquisitive, with little love for either her spouse or their children. His older brother had little use for or contact with his younger sibling. His father was barely a presence in the household. The author was chronically ill, with treatment prescribed by his father, including X-rays. When Small was ten, he developed a growth on his neck that his parents were too preoccupied to have diagnosed, though friends of the family urged them to. It wasn't until after he turned 14 that he finally underwent surgery for what was initially considered a harmless cyst but turned out to be a cancerous tumor. A second surgery left him with only one vocal cord, all but voiceless as well as disfigured. Terse and unsentimental throughout, the narration becomes even sparer once the author loses his voice, with page after wordless page filled with stark imagery. Yet the intensity of the artistry reveals how he has been screaming inside, with nightmares that never fully abate when he is awake. Psychological therapy helps him come to terms with his condition, as does his precocious artistry. While the existence of this suggests somewhat of a happy ending, the reader will find forgiving and forgetting as hard as the author has.

Graphic narrative at its most cathartic. (Author tour to New York, Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, Denver, Minneapolis, Ann Arbor, Mich., Kalamazoo, Mich., Boston, Agent: Holly McGhee/Pippin Properties)

STITCHES: A Memoir. (2009). Kirkus Reviews, 77(12), 649.
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Library Use:

This book could be used to help young adults talk about emotions. Students could, instead of talking, draw pictures that represent their emotions. They could create a graphic novel of their emotions, explaining through the drawings and some words, what the feeling is and why they feel this way. The librarian could ask the Art teachers for some suggestions as to how to begin this type of project.

Readalikes:

These are all memoirs, in the same vein as Stitches and could be used as further reading recommendations for students.

Liar’s Club by Mary Carr
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
The End of the World as We Know It by Robert Goolrick