Stitches: A Memoir

by David Small, 329 pages

This graphic memoir recounts the childhood and adolescence of the author as he deals with the dysfunction of his family and the loss of his voice due to thyroid cancer.

There's a lot of pent-up anger and bitterness in these pages and the reader feels both sympathy and antipathy towards just about everybody, including the narrator.  But she understands that, in the real world, bad situations do not bring out the best in everyone and she pities the struggles these people deal with, even if they don't always deal with them constructively.  She also hopes that, after all this suffering, they have the chance to do and be better in less sad and frightening futures.  The fact that this book exists at all may be evidence that, at least in some way, they have.

The Complete Persepolis

by Marjane Satrapi, 341 pages

The author recounts her childhood and coming-of-age before, during, and after Iran's Islamic Revolution.

The first half of this memoir focuses on what's happening in the country around her, the second on how those experiences continue to shape her as an individual.  Satrapi is precocious, curious, outspoken, blunt, and fiercely independent, none of which make her safe in her home country and none of which help her adapt to her adopted ones when her liberal, loving family sends her away for her own protection.  Despite the frightening events and personal struggles portrayed, there's still a wonderful, snarky sense of humor that surfaces when needed and that exemplifies the author's bitter refusal to give in and knuckle-under.  With her simple yet powerful artwork, Satrapi manages to convey the joys and fears and hope and anger of a side of Iran that Westerner's don't even know is there--the familiar, complex, human one.  When the animated film adaptation came out a few years ago, Stephen Colbert interviewed Satrapi and warned viewers of the film's dangerousness--it made the enemy look no different than us.  A wonderful, powerful book that will give you a very personal history lesson in the form of a mirror held up from the other side of the world.

Drawing From Memory by Allen Say

72 pgs/2011

About the Book: Caldecott Winner Allen Say writes a graphic memoir about growing up in Japan and being an apprentice to Noro Shinpei, a notable Japanese cartoonist.

Sarah Teenlibrarian Says: I had received an advanced copy of this book and I thought, "hmm...this looks cool" and put it aside to read eventually. Well, then I went to ALA and heard Mr. say talk about this book and I had read it immediately!

What an amazing journey to become a cartoonist! Mr. Say was 12 when he got an apartment of his own. After reading about another boy traveling to meet Noro Shinpei and become an apprentice, Allen Say decided he would do the same thing in hopes of becoming an apprentice as well. His journey is such a fantastic read and at times I couldn't believe this was his story. I think any reader who has an artistic side will relate to the Mr. Say's feeling of how he must draw and that art is a part of him.

I can't wait to share this one with tween readers!