Bibliographic Information
This One Summer (Hardcover)
ISBN: 978-1-62672-094-7 This One Summer (Paperback) ISBN: 978-1-59643-774-6 320 pages 8.8 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches Published by First Second Available May 6th, 2014 |
An Unforgettable Summer
Rose and her parents have been going to Awago Beach since she was a little girl. It's her summer getaway, her refuge. Her friend Windy is always there, too, like the little sister she never had, completing her summer family. But this summer is different. Rose's mom and dad won't stop fighting, and Rose and Windy have gotten tangled up in a tragedy-in-the-making in the small town of Awago Beach. It's a summer of secrets and heartache, and it's a good thing Rose and Windy have each other. In This One Summer, cousins Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki, the team behind the award-winning Skim, redefine the teen graphic novel. Gorgeous, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful, This One Summer is a vibrant view into girlhood and growing up. |
Main Characters
Genre & Themes
- Coming of Age
- Pregnancy
- Realistic Fiction
- Sequential Art
- Summer Vacation
- Womanhood
- Young Adult
Art Style
The entire book is printed in a dark blue ink. The lettering is handwritten in speech bubbles with normal balloon tails. The book consists mostly of outlined panels with the occasional two-page-spread that bleeds out of the page. The characters and setting is drawn realistically.
Inspiration for the Story
In an interview with Hero Complex, Mariko Tamaki explained how her summer vacations during her childhood influenced the story...
My most potent childhood memories involve my summers at the cottage, and it feels like it happened in an instant, like one summer I was making sand castles, the next I was crimping my hair and watching my friends hit on the local boys at the corner store. So that’s where the setting inspiration came from. In terms of the plot, the spark for what happens in “This One Summer” was a story I heard about a Burger King in Niagara Falls that made girls pregnant. How, I’m not sure, but that’s what I heard. I thought, “There’s a book in that somewhere.” I’m fascinated by the mythologies of where babies come from, the stories we come up with as a way of addressing taboo subjects like sex and pregnancy. The rest of the story really evolved from the process of making the comic with Jillian.
I tried to connect as much as possible to the details of summer life as opposed to the issues I wanted to tackle. So there are a lot of little moments that are light because there are a lot of light moments that go with the day to day of being at the cottage. Being at the cottage with my family involved a lot of little family jokes. Many of them made it into this book.
In the same interview, Jillian Tamaki added...
Mariko and I are both proud feminists and presenting real people and stories is very important to us.
Sources:
Tamaki, Mariko, and Jillian Tamaki. This One Summer. New York: First Second, 2014. Print.
"This One Summer." Goodreads. Web. 31 Mar. 2014. <https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18465566-this-one-summer>.
"This One Summer: Mariko Tamaki, Jillian Tamaki." Amazon. Web. 31 Mar. 2014. <http://www.amazon.com/This-One-Summer-Mariko-Tamaki/dp/159643774X/ref%3Dsr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396127163&sr=1-1&keywords=this+one+summer>.
Clark, Noelene. "‘This One Summer’: Mariko and Jillian Tamaki Bottle Up adolescence." Hero Complex. Los Angeles Times, 22 Oct. 2013. Web. 31 Mar. 2014. <http://herocomplex.latimes.com/comics/this-one-summer-mariko-and-jillian-tamaki-bottle-up-adolescence/#/2>.
"This One Summer." Goodreads. Web. 31 Mar. 2014. <https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18465566-this-one-summer>.
"This One Summer: Mariko Tamaki, Jillian Tamaki." Amazon. Web. 31 Mar. 2014. <http://www.amazon.com/This-One-Summer-Mariko-Tamaki/dp/159643774X/ref%3Dsr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396127163&sr=1-1&keywords=this+one+summer>.
Clark, Noelene. "‘This One Summer’: Mariko and Jillian Tamaki Bottle Up adolescence." Hero Complex. Los Angeles Times, 22 Oct. 2013. Web. 31 Mar. 2014. <http://herocomplex.latimes.com/comics/this-one-summer-mariko-and-jillian-tamaki-bottle-up-adolescence/#/2>.