This One Summer

I chose to read “This One Summer” by Cousins Jillian and Mariko Tamaki. The book follows Rose on her annual summer stay at Awago Beach with her parents and best friend Windy who lives in Awago year round. There is tension between Rose’s parents from the beginning of the book- her mother had lost a baby a while back and this causes stress within Rose who is starting to like boys and go through puberty. Rose and Windy stick together daily going to the beach and playing games. One night they decide to rent a scary movie from the local market, Rose’s eye catches the cute cashier Duncan and his friend, she then notices the girls- one named Jenny- waiting for them outside and quietly admires their teenage sensual behavior and yearns for it a little bit. Rose begins to feel a little obsessed with Duncan and Jenny. A few weeks later as she and Windy rent another movie they overhear that Jenny is pregnant- this is around the time Rose’s dad and mom disagreed enough that her dad returned to the city a little early to work. He returns toward the end for Rose’s family’s end of the summer barbeque- along with Rose’s mother’s sister and husband. It’s obvious from the start that Rose’s mother’s distant behavior bothers her brother-in-law as well as her husband. The family barbeque goes well for the most part as everyone was together having fun-until Rose and Windy notice Jenny visibly drunk across the beach making a scene and yelling at Duncan. She then disappears and they notice she is drowning in the water- Rose’s mom rushes to save her which is surprising as she has been pretty lethargic throughout the book. We find out she has not been in the water since her miscarriage- then she tucks Rose into bed. The summer was a coming of age moment for Rose and Windy, Rose packs her things, bears Windy a farewell and she and her family leave Awago for another year.

I really enjoyed that this graphic novel only used a couple shades of blue to illustrate the pages- it really captured the melancholy feeling that can come with puberty and coming of age as you realize how things in the world truly operate. I think the blue hue does a great job for emphasizing moments. Each drawing had a sketch quality but they are all more developed than the typical sketch- This art style went well with the words of the story and truly brought it to life. This graphic novel uses “moment-to-moment” styled panels the most as the story is written that way. Pages 160–161 are my favorite pages in the novel as they are full page illustrations of Windy and Rose swimming in the water together. This full page drawing allows the viewer to immerse themselves with Rose and Windy and it is a beautiful look into two friends playing freely in the water. The use of full page drawings reoccur a few times within the book putting a lot of emphasis into the moment and environment around the moment- Though Tamaki does a great job throughout the book making the illustrations relatable and detailed, the full page drawings took my breath away everytime and were the perfect way to carry the story along.