Short Years

Alison McCreesh

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Book cover for Short Years
Image for variant 9781772621211
Book cover for Short Years
Image for variant 9781772621211

Short Years

Short Years

Alison McCreesh

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Description

"The Days are Long but the Years are Short." - A parent whose kids are grown.



After her highly acclaimed graphic memoirs about travelling the north McCreesh turns her uncompromising lens to the domestic everyday work of parenting three small children. Combining gag humour and individually moving comic strips McCreesh gives an insider's perspective. Guided by those existential questions that kids ponder so well, the comics touch on universal themes of death, love, gender, art, aging, as well as childhood milestones like the heartbreak about family friends moving away. More than that though, there's something deeper that comes from these comics spanning over seven years. The kids are simultaneously changing AND remaining themselves, as their personalities develop and become more defined. The family dynamics evolve. The adults lurch around like the exhausted millennial parents that they are, navigating the simultaneous intense love and extreme annoyance that comes with living with small kids. A good mix of fuzzies, feelings, and laugh-out-loud humour, all of which confirm that these years are indeed short - and very long.

About the Author

Over the past fifteen years, Alison McCreesh has extensively travelled around the Arctic and sub-Arctic and contemporary day-to-day life in the North is a theme that carries through her creative work. Alison currently lives in Yellowknife where she creates comics and illustrations surrounded by her two dogs and three small children. Alison's past books include the award-winning graphic novel Ramshackle: A Yellowknife Story, as well as the travelogue Norths, Two Suitcases and a Stroller around the Circumpolar World. Her latest graphic memoir Degrees of Separation: A Decade North of 60 was nominated for an Eisner Award.

Critical Reviews

"The Short Years by Alison McCreesh took me back to my own short years when For Better or For Worse helped me to survive parenthood and my own evolving sense of self. Alison's "New Yorker" style of drawing and her rich, poignant wit make her book a must-read for all who are in the throes of managing a contemporary family--and for those of us who (with relief) are looking back!" -- Lynn Johnston

"The tension between free-spirited off-grid living and prosaic adult responsibility runs through Alison McCreesh's tender and loving ode to the people and landscapes of the Far North." - Joe Sacco

Publishing Information

Publisher: Conundrum Press
Pub date: 2026-05-05
Length: 200 pages

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