• Age: 13 to 18
• Grade: 8 to 12

Winner of the Governor General's Award for Children's Illustration

Rose and Windy are summer friends whose families have visited Awago Beach for as long as they can remember. But this year is different, and they soon find themselves tangled in teen love and family crisis. From the creators of Skim comes an investigation into the mysterious world of adults.

Sure, Rose’s dad is still making cheesy and embarrassing jokes, but her mother is acting like she doesn’t even want to be there. Plus, being at the cottage isn’t just about going to the beach anymore. Now Rose and Windy are spending a lot of their time renting scary movies and spying on the teenagers who work at the corner store, as well as learning stuff about sex no one mentioned in health class.

Pretty soon everything is messed up. Rose’s father leaves the cottage and returns to the city, and her mother becomes more and more withdrawn. While her family is falling to pieces, Rose focuses her attention on Dunc, a teenager working at the local corner store. When Jenny, Dunc’s girlfriend, claims to be pregnant, the girls realize that the teenagers are keeping just as many secrets as the adults in their lives.

No one seems to want to talk about the things that matter. When the tension between Dunc and Jenny boils over, Jenny makes a desperate and destructive move and Rose's mother is galvanized into action. In the aftermath, nothing is completely resolved, but secrets have been aired, which means that things are at least a bit better for everyone. For Rose and Windy, the end of summer brings the realization that, while Awago Beach might always be the same, they have both been changed forever.

From Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki, creators of the multi-award-winning graphic novel Skim, comes a stunning and authentic story of friendship, illustrated with subtly heart-breaking moments and pure summer joy.

Mariko Tamaki is a writer and performer. Her work includes the novella Cover Me, creative non-fiction collections True Lies and Fake ID, comics Emiko Superstar (with Steve Rolston) and Skim (with Jillian Tamaki), and the young adult novel (You) Set Me on Fire. Her debut as a screenwriter/actor, Happy 16th Birthday Kevin, premiered at the Inside Out Festival in Toronto in May 2013. Mariko’s stories have been broadcast on national radio and she has appeared on stages, in various incarnations of herself, across North America. Mariko can be found online at @marikotamaki and marikotamaki.blogspot.ca.

Mariko Tamaki's profile page

 

Jillian Tamaki est l'illustratrice et la caricaturiste de plusieurs livres, dont Cet été- là, un roman illustré pour ados qu'elle a créé avec sa cousine Mariko Tamaki. Ce roman lui a valu le Prix littéraire du Gouverneur général, catégorie littérature jeunesse – livres illustrés et le prix Eisner dans la catégorie « meilleur album graphique ». Les illustrations de Jillian se retrouvent dans les publications les plus prestigieuses comme le New York Times, le New Yorker et le Guardian. Originaire de Calgary, en Alberta, elle habite maintenant à Toronto.

 

Jillian Tamaki is a cartoonist and illustrator living in Toronto, Ontario. Her books include Skim and This One Summer, both co-created with her cousin Mariko Tamaki; and Super Mutant Magic Academy and Boundless. She has contributed illustrations to some of the world's top publications, including the New York Times, the New Yorker and the Guardian, and has taught at Parsons and the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

 

Jillian Tamaki's profile page

• Winner, CLA Young Adult Book Award
• Short-listed, LA Times Prize for Best Graphic Novel/Comics
• Short-listed, Doug Wright Award for Best Book
• Commended, OLA Best Bets (Young Adult Fiction)
• Commended, Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature, Honor Book
• Winner, CBC Bookie Award for Best Young Adult Novel
• Commended, Randolph Caldecott Honor Book
• Winner, Eisner Award for Best New Graphic Album
• Winner, Governor General's Literary Award for Children's Illustration
• Commended, New York Public Library Best Books for Teens
• Commended, Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year
• Commended, Quill & Quire Books of the Year for Young Readers
• Winner, Ignatz Award for Best Graphic Novel
• Commended, New York Times Editor's Choice
• Commended, Washington Post Top 10 Graphic Novels of the Year
• Commended, Boston Globe Best Young Adult Novels of the Year
• Commended, Globe 100 Best Books
• Short-listed, Governor General's Literary Award for Children's Text

Mariko’s strengths as a writer lie in her subtlety and her ability to convey whole worlds of feeling within a few lines of dialogue. . . . Jillian’s full page illustrations are engrossing.

National Post

With a light touch, the Tamakis capture the struggle of growing up in a patchwork of summer moments . . . Wistful, touching, and perfectly bittersweet.

Booklist, STARRED REVIEW

This captivating graphic novel presents a fully realized picture of a particular time in a young girl’s life, an in-between summer filled with yearning and a sense of ephemerality.

School Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW

A relentlessly unsentimental vision, built around the dawning recognition that there can be no escaping, that everything counts in large amounts.

Los Angeles Times

The book is poignant and melancholy, and it will be swiftly recognizable to those who only recently hovered at the cusp of adolescence.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, STARRED REVIEW

Jillian and Mariko Tamaki . . . skillfully portray the emotional ups and downs of a girl on the cusp of adolescence in this eloquent graphic novel. . . . Keenly observed and gorgeously illustrated—a triumph.

Kirkus, STARRED REVIEW

Together, the Tamakis have created a quiet masterpiece. . . . Contrary to its title, This One Summer is timeless.

Quill & Quire, STARRED REVIEW

The tweens’ frank and often humorous conversations and their jubilant fun together provide a counterpoint to the turmoil around them.

VOYA

Even as the book grows darker, the fighting gets uglier and the inevitable loss of innocence draws closer, a sense of hope remains, and your empathy with the characters never falters. It’s difficult subject matter handled with grace.

NOW Magazine

At its heart, This One Summer is a coming-of-age story about an observer. . . . Rose proves herself to be as quietly powerful as this moving, evocative book.

New York Times

[T]he illustrations powerfully evoke the densely wooded beach town setting and the emotional freight carried by characters at critical moments . . . Fine characterization and sensitive prose distinguish the story.

Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW