About Spot 12: Five Months in the Neonatal ICU
Spot 12 delivers the gritty details of a new mother and her newborn daughter, Asa, during a five-month stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in this visually gripping graphic memoir by Jenny Jaeckel. A routine prenatal exam reveals a dangerous problem, and Jaeckel and her husband find themselves thrust into a world of close calls, sleepless nights, and psychological crises. Surrounded by disagreements and family tensions, death, and questions of faith, Jaeckel struggles to maintain a positive frame of mind. Against the antiseptic, mechanical reality of the NICU, the dedicated doctors and nurses are drawn as sympathetic and wry animal characters. Doctor Eyes and Nurse Gentlehands are two of the caring individuals who do all they can to save Baby Asa. At times Jaeckel and her husband battle feelings of helplessness and despair, but their determination, hope, insight, bravery, and connection ultimately helps keep their little girl alive. 
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Praise “A memorable and beautifully executed memoir of a newborn’s difficult first months.” --Kirkus Reviews “It's a sad, lovely, tragic story. It reminds us how close we are to tragedy at any moment in our lives...” —Tom Hart, author of Rosalie Lightning “Spot 12, the novel, a unique combination of text and remarkable drawings, was able to completely hold my interest. The topic of parenting a critically ill newborn in the NICU is not a new one…But Spot 12 was matchless in its comic book format associating pictures with feelings….It is very impressive.” —Anita Catlin, for Advances in Neonatal Care
About Jenny Jaeckel
Jenny Jaeckel holds a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington and a Master of Arts in Hispanic Literatures from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She is a certified interpreter and translator (Spanish) and teaches illustration. She lives in Victoria, Vancouver Island in British Columbia with her husband and daughter. Jaeckel is the author and illustrator of three graphic memoirs: Spot 12: Five Months in the Neonatal ICU, which won a 2008 Xeric Grant (printed in Canada, to be released in the US in 2016 in both English and Spanish), Siberiak: My Cold War Adventure on the River Ob (published in 2014), and Odd Pieces: Memoir of a Childhood (to be published in 2017). For the Love of Meat: Nine Illustrated Stories is her first collected fiction (2016). Find out more about Jaeckel at her website, and connect with her on Twitter.
MY REVIEW: 5 stars
I think the author found a great way to share her experience with having an infant in the NICU by using her combined talents and skills of writing and illustration.
I will admit this is one of the strangest graphic novels I've ever seen. I don't mean that in a bad way. Do other graphic novels on serious subjects exist? I don't know of any! When I think of graphic novel, I think mainly of comics. This seems to be a unique approach to a memoir, which definitely makes it stand out. There are many memoirs out there. This author found a way to get hers noticed that no others (or very few) have done before.
My teenage daughter saw this book sitting on the coffee table and asked me if she could read it. I said yes. She kept it for a while, so I didn't get to read it right away. She was engrossed in it. We had the experience of having a child in the NICU as well, although not nearly as long. My youngest, my daughter's little brother, had to stay for only two weeks. She doesn't remember that time very well; only vaguely. But I think that is one reason she wanted to read this book. She was able to relate to it, and understand a little more what it is like from the parents' perspective, having a baby and not being able to bring it home just yet.
The size of the book is different from most books, and seems to make a good table book. Coffee table, end table - whatever. The illustrations are beautifully done, and help add a visual to the story that words alone do not convey. I enjoyed this, not only the story, but the uniqueness of the book itself.
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review. I was not required to write a positive review, only to give an honest review. All thoughts are my own.
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