Sunshine

Hey Kiddo is one of my favorite graphic novels, and Sunshine is its follow-up but it stands by itself. This book chronicles a week that Krosoczka spent at a camp for children with life-threatening conditions. He was one of six high school students chosen at random (and they are a motley bunch)

At Camp Sunshine, he is charged with helping out Diego, a 13-year-old who has a brain tumor and travels via wheelchair, and his family. He also meets a bunch of other children, notably young Eric, who is a bundle of energy and obsessed with Power Rangers. Instead of spending this time in sadness, instead he finds that this week is one of the rare and special times that these kids fit in, can relate to each other, and take time to enjoy themselves.

Many of these memories were captured by the video camera Jarrett brought with him, and the characters really come to life in their stories and the artwork. This book is very affecting, and the weighty subject matter comes off more as a celebration of life and a window into how individuals and their families deal with difficult life situations. There is much to smile at and cry about in this book, and I feel it does an excellent job of shedding light into areas that most people, especially those not involved, tend to shy away from. 

Jarrett Krosoczka is best known for his series of Lunch Lady graphic novels for younger readers, and he has also contributed to the Star Wars Jedi Academy series. His prior memoir Hey Kiddo won the 2019 Harvey Award for Best Book of the Year and also was a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. He speaks about his work on Sunshine in this interview.

Most of the reviews I have read about this book have been positive. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly concluded, "Though the creator is unsparing in his raw depictions of the campers’ situations and his reverence when recalling these memories is palpable, he never condescends, always faithfully documenting the warmth and life-changing potential of confronting grief head-on and participating in communal care." Tahneer Oksman wrote, "Krosoczka has a talent for uncovering the bountifulness and grace that can emerge from harsh, and otherwise quotidian, realities." Kirkus Reviews summed up, "Loving and true but doesn’t always avoid cliché."

Sunshine was published by Scholastic Graphix, and they offer a preview and more information about it here. 

The Story of My Tits

I have had this book on my shelf for a long time now, and I finally got to it after listening to a brief interview with its author on The Comics Alternative podcast. The Story of My Tits may have a provocative title, but it is a book full of heart, humor, and humanity. As you may guess from the title, the book is focused on particular body parts and how they inform a person's life across a lifespan. At first the narrator spends much of her childhood/adolescence pining for large breasts, as she is skinny and feels somewhat inadequate. As she gets older and in college, she finally starts developing larger ones, which changes how she is perceived by herself and others.

But this book is so much more than the story of her biological and sexual development. It is centered on her various relationships, with her parents (whose marriage is strained, although she does not notice that for a while), her siblings, and with her eventual husband and his family members. There is much to relate to in these depictions, and I loved how she does not sugar-coat the rough parts of their interactions and also how she captures funny, idiosyncratic scenes from their lives. She really captures the not-neatness of relationships as well as how they organically develop, often in surprising ways.

Things also take a few dark turns, such as when her mother develops breast cancer and has to have a mastectomy. Also, she and her husband also reel from his parents' separate bouts with cancer and other health issues. I have read a number of books about people dealing with grave illnesses, and what makes this book exceptional is how much space it spends showing the mundane, human sides of the various characters. When the main character eventually develops breast cancer and has to cope with a double mastectomy, we have had so much insight into her life and family dynamics that really pay off because so much of this book is involved with giving everything context.

 

In the end, I have to say I loved this book. It was moving, beautiful, raunchy in parts, and gorgeously expressive.

This book garnered acclaim for its creator Jennifer Hayden. It was nominated for an Eisner Award and was named on many end of year best-of lists. It was her second graphic novel, following the collection Underwire. She speaks about her work on The Story of My Tits in this interview with The Comics Alternative.

All of the reviews I have read of this book have been very positive. Rob Clough called it "a funny, bawdy and poignant memoir about body image, relationships, family and loss." In a starred review, Publishers Weekly concluded, "Hayden has created a heartfelt and often hilarious tribute to her life—and to the resilience of women everywhere." BookDragon wrote, "Hayden’s lively memoir-thus-far is such an affirmation of love and life – albeit without any rose-colored glasses, thank you very much! – that you’re going to need to set aside some solid time to just bask in her accomplishment."

The Story of My Tits was published by Top Shelf, and they have more info about it here.

This book features adult content, some nudity, and profanity, so it is suggested for readers mature enough to handle those things.

Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout

Not Quite a Graphic Novel Month shines on!

I am not going to lie. I was geared up to hate this book. I saw it first in an airport in the graphic novels section but did not preview it. Always on the lookout for science graphic novels, I ordered it sight unseen from Amazon. When I got it, I opened it up and immediately thought, "Oh man, it's a picture book. What a ripoff!" So I set it aside for a few months. Now reading it, I see why it was put in with the graphic novels even though it really is not one. This book defies easy categorization, but I can tell you it's beautiful, informative, moving, and wonderfully strange. It is like a pictorial Moby Dick, a collection of disparate items and styles that hang together to give different aspects to complex narrative.

Ostensibly, this book is about two things: the lives and love of Marie and Pierre Curie, which act as the narrative thread connecting the second topic, the history of radioactivity. The Curies discovered polonium and radium, pioneering study of the elements and radioactivity. For their efforts they won Nobel Prizes, but they also fell victim to health problems from being exposed to radiation over long periods of time. They were titans of the field, lending their name to an elementary unit and beginning study of a phenomenon that has transformed the world, leading to medical advances, renewable energy, terrible disasters, and the most destructive weapons on the face of the planet. This book touches on all of these areas, and more. Today, Marie Curie is sometimes unfairly regarded as a token female scientist, and Pierre as her husband/collaborator, but as this books shows, such slight regard is unfounded and insulting. This book reanimates their stories and celebrates their lives and achievements in appropriate fashion.

Lauren Redniss, this book's creator, is an author and artist who has been published regularly in The New York Times. She also is the author of the book Century Girl: 100 years in the Life of Doris Eaton Travis, Last Living Star of the Ziegfeld Follies. From 2008-2009 she was a fellow at the Cullman Center for Scholars & Writers at the New York Public Library, and she became a New York Institute for the Humanities fellow in 2010. Redniss speaks extensively about her impetus for creating this book here.

Redniss's artwork is beautiful and haunting. Much of the artwork is cyanotype, a photographic printing process that produces a ghostly effect meant to echo the glow of radium or an x-ray. She also makes good use of collage to portray historic and informational text pieces. From the artwork, her account of the artistic process, and the copious footnotes in the end pages of the book, Radioactive is an obvious labor of love for her.

This book has garnered some impressive praise. It was a 2011 National Book Award Finalist. Dwight Garner raved that "the word 'luminous' is a critic’s cliché, to be avoided at all costs, but it fits Ms. Redniss’s book pretty snugly. This is a story with a hefty half-life." Dr. Mary Jo Nye called it "a book that truly is out of the ordinary, and it is well worth reading and contemplating." Marcia Bartusiak added, "Finishing the book, I went back to the beginning and read it again. Just as I did with my favorite picture books as a child." Kathy Ceceri called Radioactive "a rich and complex story of life, love, and science told through narrative and imagery. It is a powerful and beautiful book."

Some preview pages are available from the author here. The book's publisher HarperCollins provides numerous links here.

Why it's not quite a graphic novel: Radioactive is not a graphic novel, but it is not quite a picture book either. It is a collection of beautifully rendered art that tells a story by itself but not necessary in sequential order. There are also substantial text pieces that could stand alone. All together, this book provides a unique experience as a well researched piece of nonfiction, an affecting love story, and an evocative series of images.

Stitches: A Memoir

Stitches is a powerful and personal graphic memoir. It follows David from his birth, through his childhood, and into his early adulthood when he becomes a respected artist. He is a sickly child who turns to drawing as an outlet. His family members all seem to be leading lives of quiet desperation. His father, a radiologist, uses a punching bag to vent his frustrations, and he also uses his x-ray equipment on his young son. David's mother, who is more passive aggressive, strict, and terse, bangs a lot of cabinet doors. His older brother beats on drums. When a lump on his neck grows and has to be attended to medically, David's life is never the same.

Artist/writer David Small is a long time children book's illustrator whose work is well regarded. He won the prestigious Caldecott Award in 2001 for So You Want to Be President? written by Judith St. George. He frequently collaborates with his wife Sarah Stewart, and they won a Caldecott Honor in 1998 for The Gardener. He speaks more about his life and work on this graphic novel in this interview with Memoirville's Rebecca Touger.

Stitches was an extremely well received book. It was a 2009 National Book Award Finalist for Young People's Literature. It was nominated for two 2010 Eisner Awards. Publishers Weekly named it one of the Best Books of 2009. It was profiled by Eric Kinigsberg in The New York Times. The Washington Post's Michael Sims added this "horrific but ultimately redemptive" tale to "the list of powerful works of art in this versatile medium" of graphic novels. The Guardian's Rachel Cooke wrote that is was "a triumphant testament of survival."

This graphic memoir was published by W. W. Norton. A video trailer is available here.