DAVID SMALL GRAPHIC MEMOIR ACQUIRED
From the official press release:
W. W. NORTON ACQUIRES EXTRAORDINARY GRAPHIC MEMOIR BY CALDECOTT MEDAL WINNER DAVID SMALL
New York, October 10, 2007—W. W. Norton & Company has acquired world rights, exclusive of Canada, to STITCHES, a brilliant, visually arresting graphic memoir by bestselling, award-winning children’s author and illustrator David Small. This will be Mr. Small’s first work for adults. Executive Editor Robert Weil made the strong six-figure deal with leading children’s and young adults agent Holly McGhee, president of Pippin Productions, in an auction that involved a select group of four bidders.
David Small has illustrated more than forty books for children and received the 2001 Caldecott Medal for So, You Want to Be President and a 1997 Caldecott Honor and a Christopher Medal for The Gardener, written with his wife, Sarah Stewart. In STITCHES, he relates the bizarre and deeply disturbing story of his 1950s childhood in a family where free expression was forbidden and where abuse was both emotional and physical in the most unusual of ways. As the son of a radiologist, Small grew up looking at x-rays and drawing on x-ray paper. Small has remarked that it was his exposure to x-rays, at the hands of his father, that developed his talent for depicting the human figure but also gave him cancer at age 14. In a family where silence reigned supreme, David Small awoke from supposedly minor surgery to find that one of his vocal cords had been severed. STITCHES chronicles his physical trauma as well as his miraculous escape from home at age 16.
Mr. Weil is also the editor for Will Eisner and Robert Crumb; Mr. Small is the first new graphic artist he has taken on since Crumb. Comments Mr. Weil, “Small’s childhood is as dark and disturbing as it gets, and in some ways reminded me of Running With Scissors or A Shot in the Dark in its depiction of a repressed creative adolescent attempting to overcome the enormous emotional freight of a deeply troubled family. In the end, he recovers the remarkable voice that had been taken from him.”
Norton plans to publish the two-color, 7×10 format book of graphic art and prose in Fall 2009 with an aggressive marketing plan and multi-city tour. Norton’s foreign rights manager Elisabeth Kerr notes that there is already intense interest at Frankfurt. Mr. Small has agreed to allow his life’s story to be optioned for film, and Ms. McGhee reports that there is already strong movie interest.
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About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Kirkus, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on BlueSky at: @fuse8.bsky.social
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*swoon* I heard a little about this from Sarah Stewart at an official book shindig a couple years ago and have been wondering when it would materialize ever since. *squeeeeeee*
Okay, let the games begin — who would you cast to play David Small?
Omigod. Good game. Christopher Lloyd’s too old. If we’re talking a young David then . . . I know it doesn’t fit but if we look at teenage to college age David then my vote goes to Michael Cera. Doesn’t look anything like David but could do the personality to a tee. Plus, I bet Michael’s always hankered to do something serious. He has the chops for it.
….reminded me of Running With Scissors or A Shot in the Dark in its depiction of a repressed creative adolescent attempting to overcome the enormous emotional freight of a deeply troubled family.
Or maybe Shot in the Heart about Gary Gilmore’s upbringing in his deeply troubled family.
Oh, I am thinking Paul Dano (the son in Little Miss Sunshine)as the teen David.
Omigod yes. Brilliant. If they can get him, that is. That young man’s star looks like it’s about to shoot sky high due to that current film with Daniel Day Lewis.
I posted a story of David Small’s presentation for “Stitches” in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on my blog, The Sparrow Papers.