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1. School Library Journal, Thu, Jun 4, 2009
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2. Barnes and Noble, Fri, Oct 23, 2009
...I see so many ebooks on Amazon and so many that are not on B&N's website. I wrote to B&N and got a very rude answer from someone who offered no advice and no place to write. All these books have recently been offered in ebook form on Amazon. But not on B&N: 1. Stitches, a memoir. David Small 2. The Wild Things by Dave Eggers. 3. The Makers Diet for weight loss 16 weeks. those are just a few off the top of my head. since they are already out in ebook format, i am really hoping B&N will be on top of new releases. they are a huge bookstore. i do not see any reason why Amazon has dibs on these books. i really want to feel that my nook will get new books as they come out too.... |
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3. Barnes and Noble, Mon, Nov 30, 2009
...A cloud of dread mixed with sadness and horror hangs over this ferociously affecting graphic memoir. Illustrator David Small—who suffered a cancer that was radically “treated” when he was a teen—suffered even more from the byzantine family dynamics of anger and repression that are detailed through his inimical pen-and-ink-wash drawings. His life story is, truly, unbelievable; and yet he makes you believe—in the possibility of life after a living death.... |
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4. The Star Phoenix, Tue, Dec 1, 2009
...Stitches: A Memoir By David Small McClelland & Stewart, $29.99 American children's book illustrator David Small's unflinching memoir of his childhood takes the form of a graphic novel in which his childhood is dominated by silence - his unstable mother's silence, his radiologist father's withdrawal and then his own silence after surgery for throat cancer at age 14 - caused by his father's subjecting him to routine rounds of X-rays as a child.... |
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5. Canada.com, Sat, Dec 12, 2009
...From the Garden of Eden, to today's Montreal, to unmapped worlds of fantasy, graphic literature's storytelling range knows no bounds. Here are some of 2009's best. ... Stitches: A Memoir, by David Small (McClelland & Stewart, 329 pages, $29.99). When he was 14, David Small underwent a throat operation that left him unable to speak above a whisper for years. His parents, never paragons of loving openness, had told him the procedure was to remove a cyst; in fact, as his father revealed later, it was for cancer caused by the radiologist father's over-enthusiastic use of X-rays. Small, a prominent children's book illustrator, has a harrowing tale to tell of family dysfunction and deceit in baby-boom America, and his treatment shows that when a form associated with childhood (comics) is used to depict childhood trauma, the effect is doubly powerful. The conceit at the heart of Stitches - that a boy whose voice has already been ignored, then has his voice literally removed - might appear heavy-handed if Small didn't make it so real for the reader. Seldom in a memoir has redemption been so honestly earned.... |
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6. Des Plaines Library, Sat, Dec 19, 2009
...It has been quite a journey for the graphic novel. It started out in 1824 with a book called The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck, burst forth into adolescence in 1938 with the first Action Comic starring a guy named Superman and gained legendary status in the 1970s with all the superheroes we know today, penned by masters like Stan Lee and Will Eisner. In the last decade or so, graphic novels have taken on a new maturity and depth. Although there are plenty of superheroes populating the illustrated pages, this format now acts as a visual medium for serious stories about the Holocaust (Maus I and Maus II by Art Spiegelman), the Iranian Islamic revolution (Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi) and the hardships of growing up as a second-generation Chinese kid in America (American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang) to name some of the most notable. The graphic novel takes another giant leap forward now with Stitches by David Small. Although other authors have used this format for autobiographical material, Small’s memoir is particularly well-suited to this method of storytelling. The novel begins when David is six years old. His mother communicates by slamming doors and sobbing out of sight. Otherwise, she is silent. David’s father is a doctor, also uncommunicative except when he is over-treating little David’s chronic illnesses. Being a radiologist, he is especially fond of constant x-rays to treat the little boy’s sinus condition. David reacts with anger and then he withdraws himself, expressing himself only through his drawings and sketches. A few years later, David develops a large growth on his neck. His father diagnoses him with a cyst but his mother balks at having it removed. Doctors cost money and money is in short supply, but the next scenes are of David’s father buying his mother a new car, new home furnishings and rubbing elbows with well-healed neighbors. In the meanwhile, David is castigated for reading smutty books like Lolita. At this point, his mother can only communicate through anger so she takes his books and burns them. When David is fourteen, he finally undergoes surgery for his cyst. Of course, it’s not a benign cyst. It’s a cancerous tumor caused by the excessive x-raying by his father. In a moment of perfect irony, the cancer has metastised to a vocal cord which is removed. Now the boy with the angry withdrawn parents would be permanently angry and silent too. Silent, except for his drawings. David’s story continues to his adulthood. We are told about his mother’s eventual death and we learn why she was so terribly angry with the world. We see David struggle with his disability and then take all that pain, and transform it into art. Small is a trickster, of course. He writes a graphic novel about a little boy, making us think we’re going to experience a sweet story from Lifetime Television. When he captures our attention, he turns his story into one about parental abuse, mental illness and cancer. Ultimately, however, Stitches is a redemption story about how one can literally and figuratively heal from injury. It is also an example of the power of pictures. As a graphic novel, the memoir was compelling. Would it have been so as a regular book? Perhaps not. As a graphic novel, Small is able to communicate the immediate experience of his little boy because we see events as a child would see them – not as an adult writing about things decades later. His illustrations aren’t telling us about things as much as inviting us to experience them as witnesses. This is memoir at its finest.... |
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7. DVD Talk, Tue, Dec 22, 2009
...The best book of the year was Stitches: A Memoir by David Small. Fantastic book. Hunter and Asterios were a close second and third. Chew was a nice surprise. It's a fun book. Well worth a look if you haven't already.... |
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8. Sarah Miller, Thu, Dec 31, 2009
...Stiches David Small... |
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9. Precocious Curmudgeon, Thu, Dec 31, 2009
......This isn’t really a “Best of 2009” list, as I don’t feel like I read enough comics from places other than Japan to make that kind of list with a sufficient degree of authority, but I didn’t want to neglect books that I really enjoyed this year. I’m not going to say that all of these books are equally entertaining or good in the same ways; I’m not shooting for an equivalent level of quality. I’m just saying that these are the books that lingered in my memory and that I’ll return to again in the future. I’ll subdivide the books into “New Stuff” and “Continuing Stuff.” Stitches: A Memoir, written and illustrated by David Small, W.W. Norton and Company. Aside from being strikingly drawn, I think this is a beautifully shaped memoir, functioning perfectly as a story in its own right. The fact that the terrible things Small relates actually happened just adds a layer of disquiet.... |
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10. January Magazine, Thu, Dec 31, 2009
...David Small’s Stitches: A Memoir is fantastic. As good or better than the most celebrated graphic novels that it has been compared to. Stitches is all the more compelling because it is not a novel at all. Rather, it is a graphic telling of author and illustrator David Small’s early life. This is David through the Looking Glass as seen by David Lynch or perhaps Tim Burton, a dark and often disturbing graphic glimpse at a childhood that many of us might have thought was best left alone. Small takes us through the dark corridors of growing up in Detroit in the 1950s, the son of a radiologist father whose constant x-raying ultimately gives the boy cancer. And things go downhill from there. Stitches is a huge distance from the work Small is best known for. He has illustrated over 40 children’s books and won the most prestigious awards available to him in the process. It’s not hard to see why: Small is hugely talented and his understanding of visual storytelling is complete. -- David Middleton... |
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11. The State Entertainment (SC), Thu, Dec 31, 2009
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12. Newsarama, Fri, Jan 1, 2010
...I haven’t read every single comic that was published this past year, but I read quite a few. So if Joe Daly’s The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book, Jamie Hernandez’s Locas II or David Small’s Stitches isn’t here, don’t fret – I fully intend to get to them. (In fact, I already own two of those three, so look for thoughts in 2010 when I get sufficiently caught up with my reading.)... |
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13. Comic Book Resources, Fri, Jan 1, 2010
Each year, CBR wraps its coverage of the comics industry with a virtual nerd cage match to determine the very best comics of the year. Every single CBR staffer – from our news team to our all-star columnists, from CBR's many bloggers to our legion of reviewers – had the chance to chip in their favorite books of the year with only the highest vote-getters ranking up on our massive top 100 comics list, and this year neither the staff nor the comics disappointed. 2009 was a year bursting at the seams with big names, big releases and big news. Though the economy's been down and the business of comics has been changing, there was still an abundance of great titles last year to choose from, from the top flight superhero and genre periodicals of the direct market to the astonishingly varied manga and graphic novels ruling book store sales to the oh so independent comics of the festival circuit and the web. And while it's nearly impossible for even the combined staff of CBR to have read every single ongoing series, miniseries, one-shot, graphic novel and web comic published in and throughout 2009, we are confident that you'll find no better indicator of the breadth and quality of the industry as it stands today than right here. So check back to see what books ranked at #100 through 76, #75 through 51 or #50 through 26, and then read on below to see the final 25 of our Best 100 Comics of 2009! #23. Stitches: A Memoir Written & Illustrated By: David Small Published By: WW Norton David Small's "Stitches" is an astonishingly haunting comic memoir that, as great as it is, I wonder if some of you might wish to skip this one. It is not for the faint of heart to see a young boy be given radiation by his doctor father for years to help cure some sinus problems only to have the radiation cause a tumor to grow in his throat, leading to a horrific operation, a gross scar and a lack of the ability to speak for years! And that might not even be the most messed up aspect of Small's life story! No, that would be the undercurrent of oppression that goes on in his childhood household, which we see as vignettes from over the years. Small is a great artist, and he does a superb job of depicting the stark horror of his life when he needs to. This is a wonderfully horrible book. – Comics Should Be Good Blog Manager Brian Cronin |
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14. The Reader, Fri, Jan 1, 2010
...In another life and death situation Stitches: a memoir by David Small (in graphic novel format) tells the story of his traumatic childhood and cancer survival.... |
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15. Visalia Times-Delta (CA), Fri, Jan 1, 2010
... "The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane," by Katherine Howe A Harvard graduate student discovers the women in her family have special powers in this fresh and mesmerizing debut novel that spins a modern tale of witchcraft. "Stitches," by David Small -/-A chilling graphic memoir of a horrendous childhood by an award-winning children's book illustrator rescued by art and therapy. ... |
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16. MLive Michigan Entertainment (MI), Fri, Jan 1, 2010
... By John Liberty | Kalamazoo Gazette December 31, 2009, 10:40AM
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17. Lansing City Pulse (MI), Sat, Jan 2, 2010
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18. Library Advocate, Sun, Jan 3, 2010
...University of Illinois Library and Information Science Doctoral candidate Minjii Chen created a list of U. S. children's books about libraries and librarians. ... A big-time omission from the above list is "The Library" (1995) by Sarah Stewart and illustrated by David Small. The front cover is of a girl pulling a wagon full of books, with her head buried in a book, reading. I have a good supply of note cards and book marks with that image!... |
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19. Lansing State Journal (MI), Sun, Jan 3, 2010
It's a new year - and time to experiment. Here's a quick look at a few recent releases that don't fit into your usual categories. "Stitches: A Memoir" by David Small (Norton, $24.95) is not your average book, despite looking like one from the outside. After all, it's got a dustjacket, it's published by a major press and seems to be just another gritty memoir if you believe the book's inside flap. Once you open it up, you enter the world of the graphic novel. For the uninitiated, that doesn't mean it's full of dirty words. The book consists of detailed black-and-white drawings, word balloons and subtext that relates Small's experiences growing up in Detroit in the 1950s. Small's family was more than a little eccentric. The award-winning children's illustrator explores a variety of unusual situations, including the title vignette, where the teenager survives unusual medical procedures that will alter his life drastically. "Stitches" is an amazing, mesmerizing memoir that well deserves its selection as one of Michigan's Notable Books of the year. |
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20. Everyday Reading, Sun, Jan 3, 2010
...# Stitches: A Memoir - David Small I get depressed just thinking about this book.... |
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21. Boston Globe (MA), Sun, Jan 3, 2010
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22. Union-News (MA), Sun, Jan 3, 2010
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23. Mon, Jan 4, 2010
...Cindy and Lynn: We are kicking off a week of Bookends Best of the Year posts with our top nonfiction books to coincide with Nonfiction Monday. Thanks to Picture Book of the Day for hosting. What an amazing year for nonfiction. We are glad we’ll be in Boston for the ALA Midwinter meetings and the announcements of this year’s top children’s and YA media awards. In addition to seeing some of these honored by the Sibert Informational Book and the debut YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults committees we are hoping to see a Printz or Newbery medal or honor on a few. We’re listing first our joint favorites (alphabetically by title) and then are each adding a couple of solo choices. Since we are not serving on award committees this year we are taking the liberty of also including books that might not make it through the rigors of an award selection process, but that we found to be worthy of special note. (Titles are linked to our previous Bookends Blog posts or to Booklist reviews.) Tune in Tuesday for our Top Picture Book picks. Stitches: A Memoir by David Small. W.W. Norton, 2009. Cindy: Yeah, yeah, I know this was published as an adult book, but our teens love this graphic novel and so do I, so I am sneaking it on to this list. I warned you we weren’t playing by the rules. Lynn: I love this too. Small does a masterful job of telling this complex emotional story using text and illustrations. Will this end the debate about graphic novels being literature? |
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24. Sonny Wilkins Chronicle, Wed, Jan 6, 2010
...STITCHES: A MEMOIR for its connection between writer, character, and reader, and its harrowing visual account of growing up under specific circumstances.... |
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25. Ocio, Wed, Jan 6, 2010
...A punto de comenzar otro año, compartimos una corta pero jugosa selección de historietas que debe tener en su librero. O disco duro. Pero que su lectura ya es obligación ... Primero escritor, después artista, David Smalls presenta lo que muchos han definido como película muda: la historia de un niño que despierta sin voz, enfermo de cáncer y un extraño ante los ojos de sus padres, quienes deciden lidiar con su condición mortal con alejamiento. Cada página, algunas faltas de texto, muestran un laberinto casi kafkiano en donde las tintas en blanco y negro narran el nuevo mundo de David. Ilustrador de libros para niños, la revista New Yorker, y el periódico New York Times, el cómic autobiográfico de Smalls vio la luz como un libro en septiembre de este año, y ya está entre los más vendidos en Estados Unidos.... |
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26. Publishers Weekly.com, Thu, Jan 7, 2010
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27. Publishers Weekly.com, Thu, Jan 14, 2010
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28. Morning Sentinel News (ME), Tue, Jan 19, 2010
... Welch with Amanda Welch and Dan Welch; The Magicians by Lev Grossman; My Abandonment by Peter Rock; Soulless: An Alexia Tarabotti Novel, by Gail Carriger; Stitches: A Memoir by David Small; and Tunneling to the Center of the Earth by Kevin Wilson. |
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29. St. Louis Post-Dispatch Blogzone (MO), Tue, Jan 19, 2010
... My Abandonment by Peter Rock, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Soulless: An Alexia Tarabotti Novel, by Gail Carriger, published by Orbit, an imprint of Hachette Book Group Stitches: A Memoir by David Small, published by W.W. Norton & Company Tunneling to the Center of the Earth by Kevin Wilson, published by ... |
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30. The Times Entertainment, Wed, Jan 20, 2010
... Of my five favourite graphic novels of the year, two (Stitches by David Small and Grandville by Bryan Talbot) were recently reviewed, ... Powell's stark palette. It's not an easy book, but its dark brilliance marks its creator as a writer-artist of genius. |
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31. School Library Journal, Fri, Jan 22, 2010
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32. School Library Journal, Sat, Jan 23, 2010
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33. Oakland Tribune (CA), Sun, Jan 31, 2010
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