Shame Pudding - by Danny Noble (Paperback)

About the Book

"A celebration of the wacky and wonderful Jewish grandmothers who nurtured the author as she grew from a kid struggling with anxiety and insecurity to a teen finding her own voice. Danny Noble's mother insisted that they celebrate all types of religious holidays with fun and fireworks, but they wouldn't bother with the fasting ones as long as they were kind. Grandma would pinch her cheeks and say "shayne punim" which in Yiddish means pretty face, but to Danny and her little brother it sounded like "shame pudding". The author shares stories of her charming and eccentric family and her adolescent struggles with anxiety, fear, friendship, and romantic love."--Publisher's website.

Book Synopsis

A celebration of the wacky and wonderful Jewish grandmothers who nurtured the author as she grew from a kid struggling with anxiety and insecurity to a teen finding her own voice.

Danny Noble grew up in an eccentric family with two weird and wonderful Jewish grandmas living right around the corner. One grandma stuffed her full of love and gefilte fish, and the other pinched her cheeks shrieking "shayn punim!" The strange words hung in the air, sounding like "shame pudding." Was this some sort of insult? It was never explained that those words meant "beautiful face" in Yiddish.

This memoir, told in graphic novel format, is a personal celebration of the author's charming and vibrant family and how they saved her from the machinations of her own brain. It explores resonant adolescent topics of body image, self-determination, insecurity, fear, religious identity, politics, friendship, romantic love, and family relationships. Danny Noble's expressive style brings this delightful cast of characters to life.

Review Quotes

"Noble immediately establishes an authentically intimate voice, confessional but also self-aware and generous; her endearingly scratchy, impressionistic ink drawings feel like she's trusting readers with pages from her diary." --Publishers Weekly.

"Growing up, Noble's inner wolf prevented her from being able to find her voice. While she was fascinated by werewolves, she was very shy with her peers and only really felt comfortable being herself when she was around her loud and vibrant family, especially 'the Mas.' The Mas, Grandma Min and Ma, are Danny's paternal and maternal grandmothers, respectively, and they are the true heart of this book: They are fully fleshed out in both prose and illustration and are therefore so real that they will be sure to make readers feel as if they knew and loved them too." --Kirkus Reviews.

"Danny Noble's Shame Pudding is a wonderfully drawn, ridiculously sensitive, very wise and very funny graphic memoir that evokes what it's like to be a child--or to have been a child (or at least, to have been me as a child)--better than anything I've read. It gave me back something precious I thought I'd lost. I'm in awe and will reread it often." --Liana Finck, author of Passing for Human

"I love this book. It's beautiful, touching, gritty and hilarious. A refreshing perspective on an era that's so familiar to many of us. So heartwarming but never saccharine. Very real and true." --Adrian Edmondson, actor and comedian

"I was absolutely enamored with it from the start. Danny draws her story and the stories of those around her with a wonderfully delicate hand, and in a way that leaves a beautiful and lasting impact. Shame Pudding is a comforting memoir that captures the funny, strange and enduring spirit of family, and the love that we may always return to when things are falling apart." --Ruby Elliot, author of It's All Absolutely Fine

"With masterfully whimsical drawings Danny Noble pictures the taste and texture of childhood and the highs and stomach knots of young adulthood. Vibrant family portraits emerge from Shame Pudding, characters I feel like I know, or wish I could: two big-hearted grandmas, one graceful and full of praise, the other ever-threatening fisticuffs, a genius brother who floats in air, quirky and supportive parents. But perhaps the most affecting character captured is the author herself, a self-proclaimed grubby girl plagued by social silence who grows to quell self-hate through music and art. Shame Pudding is a wholly unique story about giving voice to the inner wolf, and the family that always listens." --Amy Kurzweil, author of Floating Couch.

About the Author

Danny Noble grew up in Brighton, a seaside town on the south coast of England. She later moved to London, and even lived through several winters in a trailer in a public park. She recently illustrated two children's books written by the famous British comedian, Adrian Edmondson. And her narrative art has appeared in many anthologies and exhibitions including The Strumpet, Dirty Rotten Comix, The Inking Women. When not drawing, the author sings with the ska band The Meow Meows.