Go to Sleep (I Miss You)

November 4, 2019
Knisley (Kid Gloves) captures the frantic and fantastic follies of early parenthood in this endearing collection of pen-and-ink comics. “These little sketchbook cartoons,” she writes in her introduction, “are my effort to feel less alone and crazy at a time when most people feel alone and crazy.” After her son was born, she recorded his growth spurts, tantrums, and vaccinations alongside her own entrance into motherhood. Knisley delights in her son’s discovery of the world around him, his “intoxicating baby smell,” and the plethora of adorable hats she dresses him in, but she doesn’t shy away from the more onerous aspects of caring for a newborn. Hours are spent pleading with him to stop crying, longing for the return of his nanny, and changing an endless series of blown-out diapers. In a section on breastfeeding, Knisley differentiates between nursing in autumn (“snugly-cozy”) and summer (“sticky-sweaty”); to alleviate pain, she illustrates fantasizing about patenting “The Detachable Boob” or body armor “for your tender milk meats.” Her spare linework conveys both the agony of an infant’s scrunched-up wail and the wonder of his perfectly rounded fingertips. Such observations make for a charmingly honest and humorous account of raising babies. Agent: Holly Bemiss, Susan Rabiner Agency

December 1, 2019
A celebration of new motherhood, for new mothers, by a graphic artist who was then a new mother. Knisley (Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos, 2019, etc.) admits that she "spent much of my pregnancy worried that having a baby would derail my work." Instead, it gave her work a new focus and fresh meaning as well as some occasional respite from the overwhelming duties of motherhood. The author calls her latest a "baby book" and a "sketchbook," and it is very much a work accommodating the pace and demands of having a baby. The sketches have an on-the-fly immediacy, and there's little attempt to sustain a narrative beyond a one-page panel. Who has the time? Or the concentration? Whether she's "running on (baby) fumes" or admitting that "some days it feels like there's nothing left," Knisley captures the exhilaration and exhaustion that a newborn brings to a household and its established routines. She explores "Some Unexpected Aspects of Mommification"--"you cannot think about anything bad happening to a kid without getting messed up for days"--demonstrating how motherhood changed her perspective and behavior in ways she hadn't anticipated even though she had likely given the upcoming changes plenty of thought. For example, "I expected breastfeeding to be hard, but I had NO IDEA." Throughout, the drawings and text capture the frenzied pace, the love and humor, the experience of feeling depleted and having nothing more to give--but then having to give some more. For all of the immediacy of the sketches, there's also a recognition of passing through stages and enjoying what you can while you can--because "Sleeplessness, Screaming & Teething Are Fleeting!" (drawn in a manner that could serve as a tattoo). A volume that will serve as a cherished keepsake for mother and son and will resonate strongly with other mothers.

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February 21, 2020

Knisley writes what she knows: frank, funny comic memoirs about her relationship to food and cooking (Relish) or her travels abroad (Age of License), and more. Now she's turned her pen to explore parenthood. This volume offers a peek into the sketchbook Knisley kept during the bleary first months of her child's life--one page snippets detailing the highs and lows of parenting a baby, from sleepless nights and leaky diapers to the adorable coos and smiles in between. As the title suggests, Knisley's black-and-white sketches capture the contradictory nature of parenthood: you wait for the baby to fall asleep, and then miss them when they do. While this isn't the best book to start with for those uninitiated to the cartoonist's work, fans and newcomers alike will enjoy seeing a less polished version of Knisley's output. VERDICT For a more narrative approach, consider Knisley's earlier comic about her pregnancy and birth, Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos, which delves deeper and more satisfyingly into the topic than the sketchbook format allows. For a busy new (or veteran) parent, these bite-sized laughs are just what the pediatrician ordered.--Ingrid Bohnenkamp, Springfield-Greene Cty. Lib. Dist., Springfield, MO

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2020
The author of several beloved graphic memoirs, Knisley (Kid Gloves, 2019) is also a lifelong sketchbooker. Here she shares diary-cartoons (that fans may recognize from her popular Instagram account) from her son's first months on Earth, which were her "effort to feel less alone and crazy at a time when most people feel alone and crazy." Organized into chapters like "Parents are People" and "Bodily Fluids," more than 150 black-and-white, one-page comics offer up just what new parents will relate to?the good, the bad, and the funny?with exactly the right time commitment (as in under a minute, if need be). Beyond the title comic's sweet sentiment, the confusion and contradiction within new parenthood are on display: one page shows Knisley and her husband reading in bed, her book on "parenting advice" and his on "parenting advice that says the exact opposite." A few pages of Knisley's wished-for baby inventions, like a "baby car seat removal spatula" and a trampoline that sends back dropped toys, will have weary parents wishing with her. A highly cheering exercise in love and solidarity.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)