Is It Too Graphic?

I have always been a bit of a snob about graphic novels. I mean really, aren't they just fancy comic books masquerading as literature? Well, I guess it is time to admit that I can be wrong. ( I hear the sound of my children gasping in the background.....)

Stitches by David Small is a powerful memoir told partially with words and partially with images. Mr. Small has told the story of his very dysfunctional family and his painful childhood by using the simple and elegant drawings that illustrate the children's books that may be more familiar to his readers. He illuminates the starkness and lack of emotion of his mother and the distance of his father. He tells the story of a child who is not told of the cancer that has ravaged his body because it is not something that he needs to know. He tells of finding that person who will hear him and see him, for the first time in his life.

This is a powerful and affecting story told with pictures and words. I cannot imagine it being told in any other way.