The Squirrel Mother Stories

While a young girl thoughtlessly destroys a dress her mother spent hours sewing for her, a squirrel mother, trapped by the household chores she does for her children, decides to abandon them. This is the opening story in Kelso's newest collection of graphic short stories. Kelso perfectly marries words and images, telling stories of longing and casual cruelty with a mastery perfectly suited to the comics medium. Whether it's a story of an aunt's unexplained desertion of her duties or a simple scene of learning to waltz, Kelso captures in a few panels emotions and ideas that expand well beyond the pages of this collection. The longest story is a well-researched imagining of our founding fathers and what would have happened if Alexander Hamilton had fought the duel he should have fought—against his ideological opponent Thomas Jefferson instead of Aaron Burr. Some stories are narrative, some just show the emotion of a single moment in time, but none truly end by the last page. Beautifully packaged, this is a gem of a collection. (Aug.)