Stitches by David Small

I just finished reading David Small’s 2009 memoir, Stitches. It is a story of suffering from cancer in adolescence as well as going through traumatic family experiences, and it is set in the realities of Detroit in the 1940s and 1950s. The book has received widespread acclaim, including winning the American Library Association's Alex Award.

Given the technical aspects of telling a story, I appreciated the long panels of illustrations and the fact that there was very little text in the entire book. I need to work on telling stories solely through images for the graphic novel I’m working on.

I also enjoyed seeing archival images and brief background information to help the reader understand the context of the story. It adds a lot to a memoir, and I want to add the same to my future memoir.