Spinning

Description: A debut coming-of-age graphic novel about competitive figure skating, the growing pains of becoming a teen, exploring sexual identity, and finding a new dream from an Ignatz Award-winning cartoonist.

Brief description: Tillie Walden is a cartoonist and illustrator from Austin, Texas. She is a graduate of the Center for Cartoon Studies, where she now teaches. She has published many graphic novels, including her Eisner Award-winning memoir Spinning. She lives in Vermont with her family.

Review Quotes:

"[A] stark, gripping graphic novel memoir." --Washington Post, "These books can help build strong girls--and boys--for today's world"

"Tillie Walden's Spinning is an engrossing, gorgeously quiet look back at the 12 years she devoted to figure and synchronized skating." --New York Times

"Intimate and compelling. A quiet powerhouse of a memoir." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"An elegant, contemplative, and somber graphic memoir . . . A haunting and resonant coming-of-age story." --Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Quiet and lyrical . . . and deeply satisfying. A stirring, gorgeously illustrated story of finding the strength to follow one's own path." --Booklist, starred review

"An honest and intimate coming-of-age story that will be appreciated by tweens and young teens, especially those in competitive sports." --School Library Journal

"An accessible introduction to the graphic novel form. Older readers will want to graduate from this to Alison Bechdel's Fun Home." --The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"This beautiful story about sorrow, growth, and triumph will resonate in every reader's heart." --Laurie Halse Anderson, New York Times-bestselling author and two-time National Book Award finalist

"This is a beautifully told story that will resonate with anyone who played an instrument, or did gymnastics, or got signed up for skating: these things weren't always what we wanted to do or cared about, but they gave us some focus when everything else was mystery and chaos." --Lucy Knisley, New York Times bestselling author of Relish: My Life in the Kitchen

"Spinning is spare yet intimate, painfully honest, and oh-so-real." --Malinda Lo, three-time Lambda Literary Award finalist author of Ash and Adaptation

"Gorgeous and honest." --Faith Erin Hicks, award-winning author of The Nameless City