Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos - Softcover

Knisley, Lucy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1626728089 ISBN 13: 9781626728080

Publisher: First Second, 2019

Synopsis

A New York Times bestseller

If you work hard enough, if you want it enough, if you’re smart and talented and “good enough,” you can do anything. Except get pregnant.

Her whole life, Lucy Knisley wanted to be a mother. But when it was finally the perfect time, conceiving turned out to be harder than anything she’d ever attempted. Fertility problems were followed by miscarriages, and her eventual successful pregnancy plagued by health issues, up to a dramatic, near-death experience during labor and delivery.

This moving, hilarious, and surprisingly informative memoir, Kid Gloves, not only follows Lucy’s personal transition into motherhood but also illustrates the history and science of reproductive health from all angles, including curious facts and inspiring (and notorious) figures in medicine and midwifery. Whether you’ve got kids, want them, or want nothing to do with them, there’s something in this graphic memoir to open your mind and heart.

About this title

About the Author

Lucy Knisley is the author and illustrator of beloved graphic novels about memory, identity, food, and family. Her Alex Award-winning graphic novel, Relish: My Life in the Kitchen, tells the story of her childhood steeped in the food industry. It was a New York Times bestseller and has been translated into five languages. Her travelogues (French Milk, An Age of License, and Displacement) and web comic series (Stop Paying Attention) have been lauded by critics, and her combined work has built her a devoted readership for her honest and thoughtful true-life stories. Her graphic memoirs include Something New: Tales from a Makeshift Bride and Kid Gloves.

Reviews

The subtitle to Knisley's latest autobiographical comic is "Nine Months of Careful Chaos." But her experiences with reproductive health began in high school. As a teen, Lucy volunteered at a Planned Parenthood peer-to-peer educator program and tried numerous birth control methods. Fast-forward nearly a decade later, and she and her husband John are ready to have a kid, but are finding it much harder than her younger self might have thought. After her first miscarriage and laparoscopic surgery to adjust the shape of her uterus, she finally gets pregnant. Next comes intense nausea, unsolicited advice from strangers, and fears that motherhood will affect her work. Finally, while Lucy is in labor, previously undiagnosed eclampsia leaves her unconscious for two days. As always, Knisley's illustrations are cheerful and colorful and her writing witty, but this powerful narrative doesn't shy away from bleak and terrifying moments. In one especially moving scene, John describes seeing his wife ailing in the hospital. As Lucy regains consciousness, the colors fade in from black-and-white sketches to a color frame of a recovering Lucy holding her new baby. The author also explores the often disturbing treatment that pregnant women have endured throughout history, stressing that all women should have control over their bodies. VERDICT Knisley's nuanced look at pregnancy and her message of bodily autonomy will resonate with teens, especially those who appreciated the graphic anthology Mine!—Anna Murphy, Berkeley Carroll School, Brooklyn

Edition details

• Publisher: First Second
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1626728089
• ISBN 13: 9781626728080
• Binding: Paperback
• Illustrator: Knisley Lucy
• Number of pages: 256