Stitches

Stitches: a memoir by David Small  329 pp.

Award winning illustrator, Small, turns his talents from his well-known children's books to a graphic novel for adults. In Stitches Small tells the story of his childhood with emotionally distant parents, an abusive, mentally ill grandmother, and his bought with cancer which cost him a vocal cord and left him without a voice for a long period of time. And if the fact that his parents let him live with a growth on his neck for years before having it removed wasn't appallling enough, they didn't tell him he had cancer, and the radiation treatments his father had given him for respiratory problems when he was younger caused the cancer. The story is a depressing one and the artwork conveys that mood quite well. It is thanks to a kind psychiatrist that Small finally left home at sixteen and went on to pursue a career as an artist and illustrated many well known and loved books.