National Film Board of Canada Collection

From the Emmy-nominated, PBS-aired animated short.

Flawed is a true story of self-acceptance, adapted from the Emmy-nominated film of the same name.

In Flawed, author Andrea Dorfman tells the true story of how she falls head over heels for Dave, "the nicest guy in the world." But she is conflicted about her feelings for her new love. He's a plastic surgeon; she hates plastic surgery and its power to make people feel flawed.

Dorfman joins Dave in the operating room to watch him fix a man's badly injured hand. She sees for herself the difference between plastic reconstructive surgery and cosmetic surgery. Dave truly is an artist. She knows she's falling in love. But when Dave performs a cosmetic surgery on a healthy boy so he won't be teased at school, Dorfman questions everything she thinks she loves about him. Her discomfort with Dave's decision to operate on the boy sends her on a journey of self-reflection that forces her to confront her own fears about the way she looks. She feels flawed.

Dorfman's playful and colorful illustrations along with her deeply personal writing takes readers through the genesis of her self-image -- from the carefree days of her childhood to the gut-wrenching awkwardness of her adolescence, and beyond. When she realizes that her negative self-perception is stopping her from being happy, Dorfman makes the bold move to accept herself as she is -- imperfections and all. As Dorfman concludes, it's our flaws that make us extraordinary.

In the tradition of the NFB's creative and innovative storytelling on film comes the National Film Board of Canada Collection: a series of celebrated animated films, documentary films and media projects adapted for the printed page.

Whether discovering a much-loved classic for the first time or interacting with a favorite film in a new and exciting way, readers will be delighted with the thought-provoking stories and inventive presentations of the National Film Board of Canada Collection.

Andrea Dorfman is an award-winning animator and filmmaker. Flawed, adapted from the Emmy-nominated film of the same name, is Dorfman's first authored book. Her video poem collaboration with poet Tanya Davis, How to Be Alone, has garnered more than eight million views on Facebook and was published in 2013. Dorfman lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia (with Dave).

Andrea Dorfman's profile page

A mix of text and graphics, this sweet book will definitely put a smile on your face.

Bookish

Dorfman adapts her Emmy-nominated PBS film Flawed into this picture-book-like graphic memoir about self-acceptance. In simple, straightforward prose, Dorfman explains how she has always been insecure about her big nose. When she enters a long-distance relationship with Dave, a plastic surgeon, she becomes extra-aware of it as well as her other flaws. Even though some of Dave's procedures are medical, he also operates for cosmetic-only reasons, which makes Dorfman feel self-conscious and judgmental; what right does Dave have to "fix" a little boy's big ears? But as Dorfman recalls growing up with a big nose, she realizes that maybe she's the one that needs to accept her imperfections, not Dave. Whereas Dorfman's short film included watercolors, these illustrations seem to be rendered with markers, with blues, yellows, pinks, and oranges filling the pages. This style especially suits the passages about puberty, where Dorfman's bright colors and simple linework emphasize her hairy armpits, orange pimples, and changing figure. Teens will relate to Dorfman's conflicted feelings about her body and will learn a valuable lesson about resisting impossible beauty standards.

Booklist

The best Canadian YA and children's literature of 2018

CBC Books

This sweet and perceptive graphic memoir, based on Dorfman's Emmy-nominated short film, explores how falling in love with a plastic surgeon forced Dorfman to face her own long-held belief that she was physically flawed... Dorfman's characters are drawn in a simple, almost childlike style, with short text in a picture book layout; her use of bright colors and decorative patterns in a flattened perspective may remind readers of works by Matisse. Dorfman's whimsical portrayal will speak to any reader who struggles with body image.

Publishers Weekly

Full of powerful images.

Squinklebooks Blog

Based on an Emmy-nominated film, this memoir about accepting one's self "is just a bold, beautiful book."

CBC

(starred review) Illustrated lessons in self-acceptance. Originally brought to life as a time-lapse film, Canadian animator Dorfman's memoir excels at tugging at the heartstrings as she shares key aspects of her being. The striking cover art, featuring a vivid, digitally rendered cartoonlike self-portrait of the author in profile--her nose prominently depicted with ruler lines--leaves little mystery as to the source of the Toronto native's inner turmoil. Dorfman reveals that when she first met future love interest and plastic surgeon Dave, when housesitting one summer in Halifax, she had already decided she wouldn't like him because it bothered her "that his job was to operate on perfectly healthy people in an attempt to make them 'beautiful.' " But after finding herself irresistibly drawn back to their summer romance, the author suggested the two cultivate a long-distance relationship by sending each other handmade postcards. Expecting Dave to shy away from her artistic challenge, Dorfman's prejudices against plastic surgery were shattered when he happily sent her an illustration of his day spent working on patients with skin cancer. Dave's courage in expressing himself artistically (not to mention loving the author, nose 'n' all) inspires Dorfman not only to rethink her judgment of his vocation, but eventually to re-evaluate her own sense of being flawed. Bold, funny, and brimming with emotional intelligence: a charming debut.

Kirkus

Flawed is about falling in love, but also about learning to love yourself.

CBC Books