about the book
Ever since she was five, Rose Wallace and her parents, Alice and Evan, have taken a vacation cottage at Awago Beach for two weeks. Every summer it is a wonderful refuge where all troubles just fade away.
This year is very different. Alice has suffered a miscarriage and is very depressed. Evan just wants to get on with life and have some fun, especially now that they are at Awago. Once they stopped trying to have another child, they started to bicker constantly. Things have gotten very bad between them.
To make matters worse, Rose’s summer friend, Windy, who is a year-and-a half younger than Rose, is still stuck in her childhood. She is eager to bike, dig holes in the sand, and swim. Preteen Rose wants more. She wants to explore grown-up things—fashions, horror movies, swearing, smoking, drinking, the sexy stuff nobody mentions in health class…and boys. Especially Duncan, a townie.
As Rose tries to escape the parental drama at the cottage, she and Windy fall back on their more childish pursuits while starting to dip their toes into the mysteries of teen life. More and more interested in the activities and liaisons of the older townies, they are both confronted with unexpected grown-up issues and have to cope with new emotions. They deal with these very differently. Rose is more knowledgeable, but Windy’s instincts are better.
As her parents’ relationship flounders, her father heads back to the city, her mother gets even more depressed, and Dunc’s girlfriend puts a real clunker into Rose’s daydreams. Rose realizes she is no longer just an observer in life…she is becoming a participant. Is this really what becoming a grown-up woman is all about?
about the author
Mariko Tamaki is a Canadian writer, gay activist, playwright, and performer. She was born in Toronto, Ontario, to parents that are Japanese and Jewish. She studied English literature at McGill University and went on to earn a master’s in women’s studies and a Ph.D. in linguistic anthropology. Currently she teaches writing fiction for young adults at the University of Toronto.
Mariko has performed on stages across Canada and throughout the United States and on radio and television. She recently wrote and starred in a short film, but is probably best known for her 2008 graphic novel Skim, which was illustrated by her cousin Jillian Tamaki. Working freelance, she writes for both young adults and adults and splits her time between Oakland, California, and Toronto. She lives with her partner, Heather Gold.
The graphic novel, This One Summer, was inspired by her summers at a cottage in Muskoka. Her experiences were very different that her character’s, Rose. She was pretty much marginalized by the other kids. “I was gay and most of my friends were straight: There was that boy-crazy versus not-boy-crazy thing.” Although she originally intended to make the book all about the two girls, it morphed into an “anthropological study of adults from the perspective of … two kids.” Mariko decided to ground the tale in reality and give the parents a larger role.
Surprisingly, Mariko and Jillian work fairly independently and there is a lot of trust between the two. If they needed to, they discussed things via emails and Skypes.
Sources:
Author blog
Author/illustrator interview : Publishers Weekly
Author profile : Goodreads
Author biography : Wikipedia
Also by Mariko Tamaki:
Saving Montgomery Sole. Roaring Brook Press. April 2016.
Skim. Groundwood Books. 2008.
Emiko Superstar. Vertigo. 2008.
about the illustrator
Jillian Tamaki is an illustrator and cartoonist. Though she grew up in Calgary, Alberta, she moved to New York City, the epicenter of the publishing industry, in 2005 and now calls it home.
Jillian originally started out studying fine arts at Queens University, but it just didn’t feel right. Thinking of going into design work, she made the switch to the Alberta College of Art and Design, where she discovered illustrating. She had no clue that a person could actually be trained to draw pictures for books and comics!
After graduating in 2003, she quickly and successfully built up a base of big clients and also teaches in the Illustration Department at the School of Visual Arts. She says working with the students is “incredible, inspiring, enlightening and often very frustrating.”
When her cousin Mariko Tamaki, approached Jillian to illustrate her new book, This one Summer, Jillian had to take a year off from her teaching and freelance illustration business to concentrate on the graphic novel. Even then, she had to juggle the art work for the novel with her normal work load for another two years before it was completed! She ended up illustrating 320 pages!
Jillian says it took her a very long time to develop her style. Now she works in her tiny studio room in her Brooklyn apartment. Her working companion is her little grey cat, Gretel!
Sources:
Illustrator website
Author/illustrator interview : Publishers Weekly
Also Illustrated by Jillian Tamaki :
Supermutant Magic Academy. Drawn & Quarterly Publications. 2015.
Half World by Hiromi Goto. Viking Juvenile. 2010.
Skim by Mariko Tamaki. Groundwood Books. 2008.
read more!
Emiko Superstar by Mariko Tamaki
Discovering a hidden diary, teenager Emi decides to act out its secrets on stage at an alternative club. Fueled to find herself before she cracks and commits social suicide, Emi begins to live a double life and face identity issues! Watch Emi go from dull, suburban babysitter to eclectic urban art star in one crazy summer!
Will & Whit by Laura Lee Gulledge
With the help of her two quirky friends Autumn and Noel, Willhemena tries to come to terms with her parents’ tragic death. She busies herself by making lamps in her aunt’s shop. It’s not until tropical storm Whitney and a community art event come to town that Will is able to greet her biggest fear head-on and find hope despite her loss.
Level Up by Gene Luen Yang
Dennis, the son of Chinese immigrants, yearns to play video games like his friends and, upon his strict father’s death, becomes obsessed with them. Later he realizes how much his father sacrificed for him, which leads Dennis to choose a nobler path.