Graphic Novels
![Will Betke-Brunswick - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_a_will_betkebrunswick.jpg)
A Pros and Cons List for Strong Feelings
A Modern Mrs. Darcy's Best Book of Fall
A Shondaland Best Book of November
"Filled with moments of tenderness and humor." ―Library Journal, Starred Review
An unexpected and poignant debut graphic memoir about a close-knit family approaching loss, and the wonder and joy they create along the way.
During Will Betke-Brunswick's sophomore year of college, their beloved mother, Elizabeth, is diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. They only have ten more months together, which Will documents in evocative two-color illustrations. But as we follow Will and their mom through chemo and hospital visits, their time together is buoyed by laughter, jigsaw puzzles, modern art, and vegan BLTs. In a delightful twist, Will portrays their family as penguins, and their friends are cast as a menagerie of birds. In between therapy and bedside chats, they navigate uniquely human challenges, as Will prepares for math exams, comes out as genderqueer, and negotiates familial tension.
A Pros and Cons List for Strong Feelings is an act of loving others and loving oneself, offering a story of coming-of-age, illness, death, and life that announces the arrival of a talented storyteller in Will Betke-Brunswick. At its heart, Will's story is a celebration of a mother-child relationship filled with unconditional devotion, humor, care, and openness.
A Shondaland Best Book of November
"Filled with moments of tenderness and humor." ―Library Journal, Starred Review
An unexpected and poignant debut graphic memoir about a close-knit family approaching loss, and the wonder and joy they create along the way.
During Will Betke-Brunswick's sophomore year of college, their beloved mother, Elizabeth, is diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. They only have ten more months together, which Will documents in evocative two-color illustrations. But as we follow Will and their mom through chemo and hospital visits, their time together is buoyed by laughter, jigsaw puzzles, modern art, and vegan BLTs. In a delightful twist, Will portrays their family as penguins, and their friends are cast as a menagerie of birds. In between therapy and bedside chats, they navigate uniquely human challenges, as Will prepares for math exams, comes out as genderqueer, and negotiates familial tension.
A Pros and Cons List for Strong Feelings is an act of loving others and loving oneself, offering a story of coming-of-age, illness, death, and life that announces the arrival of a talented storyteller in Will Betke-Brunswick. At its heart, Will's story is a celebration of a mother-child relationship filled with unconditional devotion, humor, care, and openness.
Editorial Reviews
"Touching and humorous. . . . The complexities of family grief that many of us have experienced are treated with tremendous care and beauty."
― Ms. Magazine
"Heartwarming. . . . This sensitive, humorous memoir is as much a celebration of difference as it is of the healing and enduring power of family love."
― Kirkus Reviews
"Delightful. . . . In depicting their family's relative particularities, Betke-Brunswick shows how individuals are irreplaceable."
― Publishers Weekly
"Filled with moments of tenderness and humor."
― Library Journal, Starred Review
"Heartfelt. . . . An affecting tribute to emotional resilience and everlasting love."
― Booklist
"Unique. . . . will surely resonate in readers' hearts."
― Shondaland
"Moving. . . . The story is told with a delicate touch that's as much a tribute to a child's love for their mother as a primer on how families cope with tragedy."
― Boulder Weekly
"Touching, comforting, funny,"
― Graphic Medicine
"A one-two punch of charm and verve. . . . In the course of telling a story about their mother's death and their coming out, Betke-Brunswick illustrates that life, not death, has no limits, memories and moments always live on."
― SOLRAD
"Tender and full of love."
― SLJ Teen Library Toolbox
"Life does not deliver a series of discrete events, but a tangle of overlapping experiences. The author was working on a mathematics degree, playing on a hockey team, and slowly coming out as trans and nonbinary when their mom was diagnosed with cancer. This book weaves memories from the author's childhood with scenes from the last few months of their mother's life into a tender story of acceptance, care, and love. The heavy moments are lightened by the portrayal of the family as penguins, with friends and strangers as a flock of other birds, but the story is deeply human."
― Maia Kobabe, author of Gender Queer
"Will Betke-Brunswick's A Pros and Cons List for Strong Feelings is a remarkable, but also chaotically specific...
― Ms. Magazine
"Heartwarming. . . . This sensitive, humorous memoir is as much a celebration of difference as it is of the healing and enduring power of family love."
― Kirkus Reviews
"Delightful. . . . In depicting their family's relative particularities, Betke-Brunswick shows how individuals are irreplaceable."
― Publishers Weekly
"Filled with moments of tenderness and humor."
― Library Journal, Starred Review
"Heartfelt. . . . An affecting tribute to emotional resilience and everlasting love."
― Booklist
"Unique. . . . will surely resonate in readers' hearts."
― Shondaland
"Moving. . . . The story is told with a delicate touch that's as much a tribute to a child's love for their mother as a primer on how families cope with tragedy."
― Boulder Weekly
"Touching, comforting, funny,"
― Graphic Medicine
"A one-two punch of charm and verve. . . . In the course of telling a story about their mother's death and their coming out, Betke-Brunswick illustrates that life, not death, has no limits, memories and moments always live on."
― SOLRAD
"Tender and full of love."
― SLJ Teen Library Toolbox
"Life does not deliver a series of discrete events, but a tangle of overlapping experiences. The author was working on a mathematics degree, playing on a hockey team, and slowly coming out as trans and nonbinary when their mom was diagnosed with cancer. This book weaves memories from the author's childhood with scenes from the last few months of their mother's life into a tender story of acceptance, care, and love. The heavy moments are lightened by the portrayal of the family as penguins, with friends and strangers as a flock of other birds, but the story is deeply human."
― Maia Kobabe, author of Gender Queer
"Will Betke-Brunswick's A Pros and Cons List for Strong Feelings is a remarkable, but also chaotically specific...
Readers Top Reviews
Drdmaz
This graphic memoir kicks you in the gut. Overlapping and intertwining youthful angst, navigating nonbinary gender, the love received from parents, cancer and loss. Drawings are simple and the main characters are penguins - but somehow this works. Oh - and a wee dose of mathematics is sprinkled in.
Joanne Passaro
I loved this book. I look forward to more from the author— his talent and his heart are enormous.
