This One Summer

A delightful graphic novel, recommended for YA but really perfect for adults who remember their summers in a golden haze of swimming and sun, forgetting what lies beneath.

Two friends, Rose and Windy, see each other once a year at Awago Beach. Rose is a year older, slender and thoughtful; Windy is like a chubby, immature little sister. They exchange what they've learned over the winter about "boobs and boys" and live through difficulties within their families. There's also teenage angst and drama all around them, which they are ripe for absorbing.

The drawings and dialogue are blue and purple tinged liveliness and loveliness, capturing all that's contradictory about coming of age.

Oh, this was so painfully realistic. The in-betweenness of the age of Rose and Windy, wanting boobs, almost studying the "townies" of their beach getaway town Awago, like trying to peer behind the curtain of grown-upness. They watch horror movies to prove something - to themselves? To the "Dud" at the check out counter at the corner store. I love that Windy is more true to her self - she is afraid of the movies and says so, she stands up to Rose when she starts name-calling all the girls in the town. But I understand Rose's POV, too. That age, it's so easy to villainize other women - the competition. Luckily, she's got Windy to keep her honest. Rose's parents' struggles are also so painfully realistic, too. Struggles with infertility, show more depression, wanting to disappear, the strain on the marriage.

A slice of life, a snapshot in time. Don't expect something big on plot, or any big moralizing lessons for these girls. Some summers are just about being in between. show less

This One Summer by Jillian and Mariko Tamaki (cousins) got it right. Deceptively simple, I thought this book conveyed so many emotions and family dynamics. Effortlessly capturing a young girls transition from child to young lady over the course of one summer, both the artwork and the writing are exceptional. This book managed to touch me, even though much of the emotion and growth was internalized.

The interplay between Rose and her friend Windy felt very real and brought back memories of being that age myself. The setting of a vacation cottage helped create that mix of feeling free on one hand while being forced to be with family for much of the time on the other. Rose’s semi-crush on the store clerk was also very well done, showing show more how confused she was with these new felt emotions that she didn’t know what to do with.

Rose’s family appears to be imploding around her and her outwardly showing no reaction but inwardly seething with emotions was almost uncomfortable to watch. There was a scene that showed Rose sitting alone after a family blowup and then just moving her foot enough to knock over a half empty wineglass that spoke volumes. When she and her mother finally have their confrontation, Rose lets her hurt out but isn’t mature enough to realize that her mother has something to say as well.

By the end of the summer, Rose has changed, she is edging toward growing up with all of it’s unknowns, but I suspect she will always remember This One Summer. show less

(4.5)

This One Summer is one of those beautiful and somewhat melancholy graphic novels that stick with you and makes you think about it more and more that time goes by. I think the more I do think about it, the more I like it.

Content warnings:
Suicide attempt
In-book misogyny (& challenged by other characters)

Every year, Rose and her family go to their Awago Beach lakehouse, and every year Rose spends time with her friend, Windy, who has a cabin there too. But this summer, Rose is twelve and Windy ten. Their age gap is becoming more apparent, with Rose becoming interested in boys, and Windy still wanting to dig holes in the sand and never wanting to get married. That’s not all: Rose’s parents are fighting, and then she and Windy find show more themselves involved in a drama that opens their eyes to what teenage life might be like.

I don’t know what it is ... maybe it’s the incredible art, the monochromatic purple coloring, or the very minute nuances in facial expressions, but this graphic novel is something else. It’s incredibly gripping and says a lot more between the dialogue than with its actual words (maybe that’s why a lot of reviewers say “nothing really happens”, when there’s actually lots going on).

The entire story happens through Rose’s eyes, whether it be overhearing her parents fighting (and she never really understands what about until she overhears another conversation later in the book). Things don’t always add up here until later scenes seen or overheard through Rose; the book kind of has an attitude of “you’ll understand when you’re older”.

I can’t explain this well, but the book is a treasure of a coming-of-age story; it feels so real. The way the kids hear older boys calling their girlfriends “sluts”, and then Rose calling girls sluts in a derogatory way because she likes those boys. The way her younger friend Windy calls her out on it, because she’s not yet at that age where she wants to be a part of that culture (but let’s be real here: Windy’s a lesbian). It’s just such a good story of what it’s like to actually be on the cusp of becoming a teenager and absorbing influences from all sorts.

Not only that, these authors know exactly what it’s like to be kids. The dialogue, the gestures, the specific looks; they all perfectly encapsulate childhood. And the character design? Superb. I adore the style and the way everyone’s design differs from one another. They’re people, not perfect designs, not perfect human specimens, etc.

I think I’ll like this more as time goes by, and I’ll definitely read it again. It’s a beautiful novel with lots of layers (the parents, the kids, the teenagers, and how their separate storylines come together -- or, at least, how they all come to impact each other’s). It’s probably one of the best coming-of-age stories I’ve ever read. show less

Rose and her less mature friend Windy are on the edge of beginning their teen years. They have spent every summer together at a lake house with their parents. The girls wander around the line between childhood and adulthood savoring summer memories past, eavesdropping on the dramas of local teens and their own parents, commenting ironically on the kitsch activities their parents sign them up for, and illicitly watching slasher movies. Rose has an intense need for privacy and refuses to ask for help from adults as she skulks around trying to piece together what is going on with her parents and her teenage crush. Rose doesn't know what she doesn't know and the graphic novel format lends itself to evoking that time of childhood when a show more person is so desperate for information, but is still too young to understand; some panels are heartbreaking in their pathos. Ten out of ten would recommend. show less

My daughter recommended this graphic novel to me. I had just finished Alison Bechdel's "Fun House" and so read this one eagerly. I have to say that I didn't much enjoy this book. It's the story of 2 tween girls who see each other during summer vacation which their families spend at a beach town each year. This summer their budding sexuality is just part of the emotional events happening all around them -- marriages that are on the verge of breaking, depression, sexism, and finding out that someone you have a crush on may not be such a nice person. It is a glimpse from the point of view of an adolescent girl on the fragmented, disappointing, tragic world around her.

The graphic novel This One Summer is like a visually fleshed out novella, featuring contrasting themes of unwanted teen pregnancy and a mother's unfulfilled desire to have another child. We watch it unfold through the eyes of two pre-teen friends on their annual summer vacation in cottages near Awago Beach. Rose is on the cusp of teenage-ness, and both she and Windy are wondering about things like sex, boobs, pregnancy and so on. At the same time, they still like to play at the beach and while away the summer hours. The local video rental is staffed by two teen boys willing to rent them "R" horror movies like Nightmare on Elm Street, which become their shared secret night-time entertainment.

They are fascinated by the local teens and show more study them, including an apparently pregnant and angry young girl and her skeptical, responsibility-dodging boyfriend. At the same time, Rose's mother is mourning the miscarriage loss of a desired second child, as her marriage to Rose's father frays.

An unusual story for graphic treatment, beautifully carried out by the Tamaki cousins. They manage to convey that long lazy feeling of summer along with these potentially explosive personal dilemmas, all viewed through the eyes of two young friends edging toward adulthood. The graphic treatment allows entry into the girls' world in a mesmerizing and convincing way. show less