At birth, we begin life as truthful, open, curious, and creative beings. As we grow older, our wings may be clipped by dysfunctional family and social systems. Building layer upon layer of self-protection in order to negotiate such social systems. Building layer upon layer of self-protection in order to negotiate such social systems, we learn to cut ourselves off from that original expansiveness. In essence, many of us go through a sort of reverse metamorphosis: we start out as beautiful butterflies, and turn into caterpillars. It is the goal of this book to help you become a butterfly again. Working with the uplifting metaphor of a caterpillar's metamorphosis, Wings explores three stages of personal transformation in this user-friendly book: Reaching In, Reaching Out, and Reaching High. Through these stages, readers learn to listen to themselves, accept themselves, set personal boundaries, and formulate goals, and each chapter offers exercises that explain exactly how to do this. Once emerged from our former cocoon, we are ready to approach the world anew, armed with the self-esteem necessary to soar.

Comic books and philosophy don't usually mix, but during her "drawn out" college career, Kristen Caven often used cartooning to medicate "the pain in her brain." In her new collection of full-page works, she has danced around the edge of the autobiographical comic genre, and may have just opened up new territories in sequential art. Seven short stories explore themes like rocks, feet, animals, road trips, romance and love, unfolding in a journey of discovery around the centerpiece of a 30-page graphic novel about a college student on a quest to find her own beliefs. Free-thinking friends blow her mind with discussions of philosophy, language, war, isms, and disappearing cows. The various quirky and academic graphic stories deal with the scientific process, eastern/western world views, humanism, existential crises, lit-crit, post-modernism, dualism, feminism, alcoholism, pop culture, dreams, and cosmic consciousness. Each are introduced by short personal essays in which the author shares her adventures with the craft, her life, and building a personal philosophy by understanding the ideas of others. The Reason She Left and Other Stories is the follow-up to Caven's memoir, Perfectly Revolting: My Glamorous Cartooning Career.