Deja vu

After many years of going to school, I have been assigned different varieties of books like The Book Thief (novel), or 1984 (political fiction. I  never thought I would be assigned a graphic novel especially not in a college course.

I have always loved reading comic books as a young girl. I remember that my favorite comic books in elementary were The Babysitters Club, but after being told various times that comic books weren't "real books" according to my fourth and fifth grade reading teachers. I surrounded graphic books with a sort of stereotype that all comic books are just for kids. The teachers were encouraging us to read chapter books. That eventually lead them to band us from checking out any graphic books at the school library.

(https://www.bustle.com/articles/178530-on-the-baby-sitters-clubs-30th-anniversary-author-ann-m-martin-and-editor-david-levithan-reflect-on)

I was not expecting to be encouraged to read a graphic novel again.  It was much of a surprise to be informed that I would be needing to get Stitches: A Memoir for my English 1302 course. Noticing that the book was very similar to the books I used to love in Elementry really grasped my attention. While reading the book it was almost as if I was having deja vu every time I flipped a page.

Unlike my fourth grade comic books, this book seems to be more detailed and discuss a bigger topic. One of these topics being an argument that Stitches portrayed about the meaning of happiness and different ways people find that happiness.

 As I read the book I started to understand why this young kid was having really weird dreams and a huge imagination. Coming to terms that it was a way for him to escape the reality of life.  The book shows various glimpses of ways that David finds his escape and happiness through his dreams as well his huge imagination.

Stitches: A Memoir

One of the biggest arguments is that happiness is a process that can seem hard to find. I remember when I was younger always having the question on "why we have dreams ?" and according to my fifth-grade reading teacher, Mrs.Valerio, was because "our brains use our dreams and imagination as a form of therapy. Expressing all the emotions and feeling we have while you sleep."

I love that the dreams that David had were really in depth and were abnormal yet had reasoning behind it. Especially the dream about the Bat. When you first take a glance at it it seems like a weird and crazy dream, but when you analyze it made total sense. Him looking for that protection from a mother and although he had a mother there wasn't any sort of comfort nor protection. Very similar to the drawing that he decided to illustrate in the book. Even though the bat had an umbrella it was useless.