Go to Sleep (I Miss You): Cartoons from the Fog of New Parenthood

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. [em]Agent: Holly Bemiss, Susan Rabiner Agency (Feb.) [/em]