A new hidden gem in the graphic novel collection

Blankets by Craig Thompson
GN THO

This wonderful graphic novel, hidden within one of those ugly blue library covers, is by the same guy who wrote the plaintive Goodbye, Chunky Rice. It captures the pain and confusion of growing up, the hurts parents (wittingly or unwittingly) inflict on their kids, the hurts siblings and peers (wittingly or unwittingly) inflict on one another. The novel is also a complex portrayal of a rigidly fundamentalist Christian upbringing, of first love, and of the regrets and self-doubt that plague adolescence. The silences in this book are profound, the characters almost unbearably real.

A warning to the sensitive: some nudity, some really sad moments, and some - ahem - "mature" situations.