Stitches

Stitches is a childhood memoir by award-winning children's book illustrator, David Small. For years I have admired his work in many wonderful children's picture books. In his new book, a graphic novel memoir (which is not for children), he has applied his prodigious skills as a writer and artist to the telling of his own story.

David's father was a radiologist who treated his young son's respiratory ailments with extensive X-rays. His mother was a bitter, angry woman who communicated through silent abuse. As a teenager, Small underwent surgery for what he was told was a cyst in his throat. In fact, he had throat cancer --a detail his parents chose to withhold from him.

Small's amazing illustrations are nothing short of perfect in matching the power and poignancy of the story of his damaged childhood. It is simply one of the most moving, heartbreaking memoirs I have ever read. It is also the first graphic-anything I have ever read. Should I pick up another graphic novel someday, Stitches will be the standard against which it will be measured.