320 pages
English language
Published May 6, 2014
This One Summer is a graphic novel written by Mariko Tamaki and illustrated by Jillian Tamaki published by First Second Books in 2014. It is a coming of age story about two teenage friends, Rose and Windy, during a summer in Awago, a small beach town. Rose and Windy discover themselves and their sexuality while battling family dynamics and mental disabilities.Due to the content in the novel, This One Summer has also been censored and listed on the American Library Association’s “Top Ten Most Challenged Books” list in 2016 and 2018 for the use of its sexual scenes and mature topics. The novel has also won numerous awards including the Caldecott Medal in 2015.
I liked the black-and-white art, and I liked the writing and character development. In the end there isn't much of a story, more of a vignette of two young teen girls during a summer vacation -- a bit of boy drama, a bit of family drama, a bit of boredom, a bunch of friendship.
And today we are doing yet another, I read this back in the day (but never reviewed it) re read and review. This time it's the really popular book This One Summer by dynamic Canadian cousins duo writer Mariko Tamaki and illustrator Jillian Tamaki. It was originally published all the way back in 2014 by First Second, and it received a lot of nominations and awards.
As I mentioned at the start, the author Mariko Tamaki is Canadian. She's described in her bio as a Toronto writer, playwright, activist, and performer - a person who creates for almost any medium one can write for. She and Jillian previously worked on the controversial book Skim, as well as the graphic novels Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me, Amiko Superstar, Saving Montomery Sole, She-Hulk Deconstructed, Supergirl Being Super, Jumberjanes Unicorn Power, Tomb Raider and so much more!
Jillian Tamaki, being equally …
And today we are doing yet another, I read this back in the day (but never reviewed it) re read and review. This time it's the really popular book This One Summer by dynamic Canadian cousins duo writer Mariko Tamaki and illustrator Jillian Tamaki. It was originally published all the way back in 2014 by First Second, and it received a lot of nominations and awards.
As I mentioned at the start, the author Mariko Tamaki is Canadian. She's described in her bio as a Toronto writer, playwright, activist, and performer - a person who creates for almost any medium one can write for. She and Jillian previously worked on the controversial book Skim, as well as the graphic novels Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me, Amiko Superstar, Saving Montomery Sole, She-Hulk Deconstructed, Supergirl Being Super, Jumberjanes Unicorn Power, Tomb Raider and so much more!
Jillian Tamaki, being equally prolific, is also Candian and wrote illustrated a highly enjoyable graphic novel SuperMutant Magic Academy - which I should reread and rereview! Other graphic novels she has worked on (and I should probably read) include Gertie's Leap to Greatness, They Say Blue, Half World, Indoor Voice, Gilded Lilies and so much more.
Going back to the title at hand however, the following is how This One Summer is officially described. " Every summer, Rose goes with her mom and dad to a lake house in Awago Beach. It's their getaway, their refuge. Rosie's friend Windy is always there, too, like the little sister she never had. But this summer is different. Rose's mom and dad won't stop fighting, and when Rose and Windy seek a distraction from the drama, they find themselves with a whole new set of problems. It's a summer of secrets and sorrow and growing up, and it's a good thing Rose and Windy have each other. - In This One Summer two stellar creators redefine the teen graphic novel. Cousins Mariko and Jillian Tamaki, the team behind Skim, have collaborated on this gorgeous, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful story about a girl on the cusp of her teen age—a story of renewal and revelation."
TLDR my opinion here: Coming of age story, lots of sad feels, awkward juxtaposition of childhood and adulthood. Parents fighting, rocky mother-daughter relationships.
As with many popular books that I like, the art of This One Summer felt special. Consistent but still pretty relaxed, blue, very blue - some decompressing of time but Tillie Walden's Spinning (which I now can't stop thinking about) does more.
With lots and lots of female identified characters bouncing around, there's a nice swath of different kind of women and girls - I didn't have a hard time tracking the different characters because none of them look very similar. While obviously the younger characters are just coming into their sexuality, we are mostly presented with heterosexuality (besides a brief mention that all the other kids at Windy's summer camp were children of lesbians) which isn't the best. That said, my impression of the Tamakis in general is pretty queer positive so maybe that's just not the kind of coming of age story they wanted to write (pregnancy is a recurring theme and something that most people most strongly associated with heterosexual sex).
The way in which the story takes place in "cottage country" this does bring the issues of both class and race into play. I had actually forgotten that the girls visit a "heritage village" for the Herons and while there's no admitting to the fact that cottages are on stolen indigenous land, the characters do (in their boredom of being too old for this sort of thing) all the reenactor are white and that this is all a sham. If you want to actually read indigenous comics by indigenous creators I would recommend you look at my list on goodreads! Maybe it could have gone further, but it struck me at least as being significantly better then the way class is portrayed in the comic. Because the year-round residence of this vacation local are consistently portrayed as drunk and oversexualized with some sympathy from the moody main character but very little understanding.
