This One Summer

Tamaki, M. (2014). This One Summer. New York, NY: First Second. 

In this graphic novel, Rose is going with her parents to their summer cottage at Awago Beach.  They have spent every summer there since she was a little girl.  Windy is her summer friend who is one year younger.  They have spent the summers together since she was five years old.   This summer Rose is on the cusp of adolescence.  Rose and Windy like swimming, buying candy, and watching horror movies together. But, they are also talking about boys, breasts, and sex.  At the corner store where they buy candy and rent horror movies, they are exposed to the dating drama of the teen clerk, Dud and his girlfriend. Dud and his friend call their girlfriends "sluts" and the pieces of conversations Rose and Windy hear indicate that Dud's girlfriend may be pregnant.  Furthermore, Rose's mom is depressed and withdrawn from the family.  She had a miscarriage last summer and can't seem to get over it.  Her mother just sits around the cottage and doesn't seem to want to do anything with Rose.  It puts a strain on her relationship with her mother.  Also, her parents seem to be fighting more and more.  As the summer progresses, Rose and Windy become more interested in Dud's relationship with his girlfriend and snoop around the store to find out pieces of information.  Towards the end of summer Rose and Windy's families have a bonfire on the beach.  The two girls walk to the corner store to get marshmallows and see a fight between Dud and his girlfriend.  Later that night at the beach, Rose sees a girl in the water drowning.  Rose's mom jumps into the water and saves her.  The girl is Dud's girlfriend.  At the end, Windy and Rose promise they will see one another next summer.

Rose is on the cusp of adolescence in This One Summer.  She still enjoys doing things from childhood, like riding her bike and playing at the beach with her friend, but she is also interested in the older teens and their relationship.  She is becoming more aware of her body changing and is interested in growing breasts.  She is a preteen:not a child, but not a teen yet.  It is a confusing time for adolescences as they are maturing and trying to understand what is happening to their bodies and their emotional changes too.  It is also about changing friendship.  Windy and Rose have been friends for a while, but Windy is younger than Rose, and Rose is beginning to see that Windy may not understand everything she is experiencing  emotionally.  Rose is maturing into a teen, while Windy is still in childhood.  This story also shows the strained relationship between mother and daughter.  Rose is having a hard time with her mother's depression and doesn't know how to handle it.  Her parent's fighting is also hard for her to understand and comprehend.  Young adult readers can relate to the difficulties of growing and crossing over from a child to a teen.  The illustrations in the graphic novel are dark indigo blue and white, which represents a somber tone.  The illustrations show many of the emotions and turmoil the characters face in this book.  

This One Summer won a 2015 Printz Honor Award,  2015 Caldecott Honor, and YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens.