Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos

by Lucy Knisley, Lucy Knisley (Illustrator)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781626728080
Publisher:	First Second
Publication date:	02/26/2019
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	290,356
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Lucy Knisley is the author and illustrator of beloved graphic novels about memory, identity, food, and family. She previously published the New York Times bestseller Relish: My Life in the Kitchen and Something New with First Second. She lives and works in Chicago, with her husband and child.

Editorial Reviews

Knisley's personal journey can be compelling and quite funny…But the book, with its jaunty colors and friendly black line art, works best as an extended public service announcement. Knisley deploys the diagrammatic features of comics to break down medical and cultural contexts around miscarriage, infertility and pregnancy, along with their symptoms, and she illustrates myths as well as facts, letting them visually stack up against one another. These didactic interludes, often marked off as separate chapters, provide a charming, informative guide; the pages breathe easily, cleverly composed and uncluttered.

The New York Times Book Review - Hillary L. Chute

11/19/2018
This funny and sometimes harrowing memoir, in which Knisley (Relish) shares her birth experience, is hampered by an emotionally detached narrative style. The Chicago cartoonist intersperses each chronological step of her pregnancy with cleverly scathing facts about the history of obstetrics as well as the superstitions surrounding giving birth. Knisley shines in those segments, with her didactic narrative voice and clever cartooning solutions being well suited to the material. The stories about her miscarriages, a detailed account of each trimester, and her near-death experience while giving birth are all intense and intimate. However, her art is too clean and cheerful to adequately convey the intensity of these experiences. The artifice of Knisley’s narrative style clashes with the raw emotion of her hardships, making it feel as though she’s writing about someone else. The book’s most affecting moment comes when Knisley’s husband relates the story of the near-fatal birth from his point of view. If the book sags when Knisley discusses her own pain, it soars when she offers blunt opinions about the myths she’s heard or the insensitive treatment she received. Despite its tonal problems, the book is worth reading for Knisley’s fierce wit, strong point of view, and well-paced storytelling. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"Knisley's personal journey can be compelling and quite funny... But the book, with its jaunty colors and friendly black art, works best as an extended public service announcement. The pages breathe easily, cleverly composed and uncluttered."—The New York Times

"Knisley’s nuanced look at pregnancy and her message of bodily autonomy will resonate with teens, especially those who appreciated the graphic anthology Mine!" –School Library Journal

"Lucy Knisley has a well-earned reputation for emotionally evocative, introspective, and intimate autobiographical work... Her art has become more refined and ambitious, eliciting specific feelings and reactions alongside telling a true story." —The A.V. Club

"In sharing her journey's bumps and switchbacks, Knisley assures that there's no perfect pregnancy story and that even a lot of strife won't dim the joy of a child's ecstatic arrival." —Booklist, starred review

From the Publisher

★ 12/02/2023

Fascinated by reproduction since childhood, Knisley (Something New) volunteered for Planned Parenthood's peer-to-peer educator program in high school and accordingly felt prepared to have the best experience with childbirth. Really, how hard could it be to have a baby? Really hard, as it turned out. Unforeseen, dangerous challenges included two miscarriages, a "weirdo uterus," preeclampsia, breastfeeding trouble, and conflicting advice from all quarters. Her bold narrative draws readers in while addressing not just the hazards she experienced but medical horror stories throughout history as doctors downplayed and mistreated pregnant women for centuries. Disturbingly, the United States' current maternal mortality rate is the highest of any developed nation. Knisley's cheerfully colored, simple art morphs towards a duskier realism when she relates past medical horrors. Then, when the story shifts to her husband John's perspective while his wife is unconscious and in danger, the coloring shifts to black and white—which heightens the suspense, even though readers know the happy ending: a healthy, loved little kid. VERDICT Knisley's painful yet often funny chronicle, spotlights difficult realities of childbearing that most women aren't told about. Excellent background for prospective parents, their friends and relatives, and clinical professionals.

Library Journal

03/01/2019

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

School Library Journal