SMALL THINGS

A stunning graphic novel from an extraordinarily talented illustrator. On the cusp of having everything slip from his grasp, a young boy has to find a way to rebuild his sense of self.

An ordinary boy realises that he’s slipping at the one thing he’s good at – getting good marks. He finds he’s physically cracking up. He tries to deny it, he makes himself look away, but it just makes things worse. He can’t bring himself to tell his parents. He tries to deal with it alone. He shuts out his family and friends, but the more he avoids the issue the more overwhelmed he becomes. Finally he confides in his sister. She shows him that he’s been looking at things the wrong way; that he doesn’t have to deal with it alone. She shows him that his struggles to find his place in the world are perfectly common. This gives him the strength to face the source. He tells his parents of how he’s been slipping lately. With his family’s support he finds that everything is suddenly much clearer. He understands that everyone has their problems and will always have the occasional hard times. However he doesn’t need to take his problems out on other people, and by extending a hand of friendship, he might even be able to help others through the same situation. A breathtakingly beautiful book about finding your way in an ordinary world. In the tradition of Shaun Tan’s The Arrival, the unique and stunning artwork effortlessly tells this moving (wordless) story about the universal theme of fear of failure – with a warm uplifting ending. Mel Tregonning was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1983. A published cartoonist since primary school, at age 16 she began a long-running comic strip in a national magazine. Over the decades, Mel’s illustration style grew to encompass surrealism, cyberpunk, Art Nouveau, manga, commercial art and photorealism. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design at Curtin University, during which time her first manga, Toy, was serialised in Xuan Xuan, and she also broke a finger on her drawing hand during a real-life game of Quidditch – which stopped nothing, but was scary for a second. Mel won the international Illustrators of the Future competition in 2006. She was an in-house illustrator for RIC Publications, and her first short story, ‘Night’, was published by Gestalt in 2009. Initially inspired by Jim Davis, Charles Schultz and Murray Ball, Mel’s influences expanded to include her family and friends, Osamu Tezuka, Studio Ghibli, HR Geiger, Shaun Tan, The Matrix, Muse and Yukito Kishiro. She liked laksa, Baskin & Robins ice-cream, HBO’s Game of Thrones, Harry Potter and really good stand-up comedy. Sadly, Mel passed away in 2014. She is survived by her sister, brother, mother and father – and an incredible body of work.