Marvin
Summary
of This One Summer
“This
One Summer” is a young adult graphic novel by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki,
which is a story that follows young Rose Wallace as she walks through family
difficulties, friendship, and local drama while at Lake Awago on Summer
Vacation. For as long as she can recollect, Rose has spent summers at Lake
Awago. It is there where she has a best summer friend, Windy, who younger than
rose by a year and a half. The two girls are inseparable, doing everything
together from swimming to exploring to watching horror movies.
The
summer begins normally enough. Rose and Windy fall right into their normal
summer routines with their families. They swim, cook out, go for walks,
explore, collect pebbles, shells, glass, and other small items. They reflect on
their summers, their desire to grow boobs, and about their adventures from past
summers. As the girls begin to rent horror movies from Brewster’s, the lake
town’s sole business, Rose begins to have a man crush on Duncan, a teenager who
works there. As we move forward, the crush that rose has on Duncan begins to
grow stronger. Rose and Windy end up spending a more consistent time at
Brewster’s, while here, they overhear other teens using profane words, such as
“slut”, and talking about sexual things such as blow jobs; as a result, Rose
and Windy start to reflect on how they might turn out one day. Rose, who knows
her parents have been distant for about a year, is stunned to see that her
parents not only actively argue, but that her father leaves to go home for a
few days. It upsets her, and causes her to argue with her mother. Rose accuses
her mother of never wanting to be happy, of always making others miserable, and
that it should be her and not her father who has gone home for a few days. Rose
and Windy also come to learn about local drama as it unfolds. Duncan’s
girlfriend, Jenny, is pregnant. Duncan is seen attempting to avoid his
responsibilities time and time again, not wanting to go with Jenny to the doctor,
disbelieving that she even is pregnant, and gossiping with his friends about
the idea that the baby, if there is one, belongs to someone else. At the summer
cottage, Rose’s father returns, but barely speaks to her mother.
As
the summer draws to a close, Jenny finally confronts Duncan about his
responsibilities. Duncan tells her to get lost. Meanwhile, Rose, Windy, and
their families enjoy their final bonfire together. It is then that Rose
discovers Jenny’s friends are looking for her. Rose sees a drunken Jenny
sinking in the ocean, and screams for her mom. Rose’s mom rushes to the rescue,
diving in to save Jenny from drowning. Later that night, Rose learns that her
mother suffered a miscarriage while swimming the summer before, and so has not
been right since. Rose and her mom come to peace with one another. Rose and
Windy say good bye and look forward to next summer. Rose hopes she will have
boobs by then.
This
story is one long flowing narrative told in words and illustrations. Words are
used carefully, while illustrated sequences can speak more to the story than
words otherwise would have been able to. Some pages are composed entirely of a
single illustration, and few if any words. This long, flowing, and uninterrupted
novel is something that students would gravitate to especially with the
illustrations and how the novel is formatted. Instances, events, thoughts, and
feelings all run together and I believe young adults would think of this as an
easy read and something they could identify with; especially the young adult
females. Family, friends, and love are themes in this novel that I also believe
young adult readers would enjoy reading through because these are the things
that they deal with on a daily basis. Authors Discussing Collaboration on "This One Summer"
Authors Interview on Multi Award Winning Novel
LA Times Book Festival Interview
Florida Restricts Access to "This One Summer"
No comments:
Post a Comment