Books with author David Smart

A Publishers Weekly Top Ten Best Book of the Year An Amazon.com Top Ten Best Book of 2009A Washington Post Book World’s Ten Best Book of the YearA California Literary Review Best Book of 2009An L.A. Times Top 25 Non-Fiction Book of 2009An NPR Best Book of the Year, Best MemoirWith this stunning graphic memoir, David Small takes readers on an unforgettable journey into the dark heart of his tumultuous childhood in 1950s Detroit, in a coming-of-age tale like no other.At the age of fourteen, David awoke from a supposedly harmless operation to discover his throat had been slashed and one of his vocal chords removed, leaving him a virtual mute. No one had told him that he had cancer and was expected to die. The resulting silence was in keeping with the atmosphere of secrecy and repressed frustration that pervaded the Small household and revealed itself in the slamming of cupboard doors, the thumping of a punching bag, the beating of a drum. Believing that they were doing their best, David’s parents did just the reverse. David’s mother held the family emotionally hostage with her furious withdrawals, even as she kept her emotions hidden — including from herself. His father, rarely present, was a radiologist, and although David grew up looking at X-rays and drawing on X-ray paper, it would be years before he discovered the shocking consequences of his father’s faith in science. A work of great bravery and humanity, Stitches is a gripping and ultimately redemptive story of a man’s struggle to understand the past and reclaim his voice.

Boys and girls with inquisitive minds will open this book and feast on the wealth of information and ideas connected with the long history of human inventions. It's a lighthearted, color-illustrated approach to human technology, starting with the discovery and control of fire some 750,000 years ago and progressing to the space vehicles, cell phones, and digital equipment of today. Kids might be surprised to learn that the first lighthouse dates back to 285 B.C., and stood off the coast of Alexandria in Egypt. They'll also learn about the origin of paper in China, nearly 2,000 years ago, the first European use of gunpowder in the fourteenth century, the development of the telescope in the sixteenth century by Galileo and others, the 1783 first manned balloon flight, accomplished in France by the Montgolfier Brothers, the invention of the airplane by the Wright Brothers, the origins of telephone, and later, of radio communication in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and much more. Young readers will also find thumbnail sketches of important inventors and thinkers—such men and women as Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, Marie Curie, Henry Ford, the Francis Crick-James Watson DNA-discovery team, and Microsoft's Bill Gates, who made computer technology a part of everyday life. This fascinating volume features color illustrations on every page plus a glossary and index.

David Small's dryly comic story of a little girl who wakes one morning to discover she has grown antlers has delighted children since it was first published 15 years ago. Now reissued in a sparkling oversize format, this classic is ready for a whole new audience.The family doctor, the school principal, and even Imogene's know-it-all brother, Norman, fail to resolve her dilemma. Imogene, the cook, and the kitchen maid, however, make the best of things, finding unusual uses for Imogene's new horns. Meanwhile, the problem appears to be solved when Imogene awakes the next morning antler-free.But the family (and the reader) are in for a surprise when Imogene comes down to breakfast. . . .

David Small's dryly comic story of a little girl who wakes one morning to discover she has grown antlers has delighted children since it was first published 15 years ago. Now reissued in a sparkling oversize format, this classic is ready for a whole new audience.The family doctor, the school principal, and even Imogene's know-it-all brother, Norman, fail to resolve her dilemma. Imogene, the cook, and the kitchen maid, however, make the best of things, finding unusual uses for Imogene's new horns. Meanwhile, the problem appears to be solved when Imogene awakes the next morning antler-free.But the family (and the reader) are in for a surprise when Imogene comes down to breakfast. . . .