This One Summer

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 Rose’s father leaves the cottage and returns to the city, and her mother becomes more and more withdrawn.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 has garnered much acclaim for both her written and performance-based work. The graphic novel Skim (with Jillian Tamaki) was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award and received numerous other accolades, including the Doug Wright Award for Best Graphic Novel, the Ignatz Award, and the Joe Schuster Award. Tamaki was also awarded the Writers' Trust Honour of Distinction for her body of work. You can follow her on her blog at www.marikotamaki.com

JILLIAN TAMAKI is a Canadian cartoonist and illustrator whose art has appeared in comics, picture books and even storyboards for the popular TV show Adventure Time. She has written and illustrated the picture books Our Little Kitchen, winner of the Eisner Award and the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award, among other honours, and They Say Blue, winner of the Governor General’s Award. She is a co-creator with her cousin, Mariko Tamaki, of the YA graphic novels This One Summer and Skim. She currently lives in Toronto, Ontario.

• New York Public Library Best Books for TeensCommended 2014
• New York Times Editor's ChoiceCommended 2014
• OLA Best Bets (Young Adult Fiction)Commended 2015
• LA Times Prize for Best Graphic Novel/ComicsShort-listed 2015
• Globe 100 Best BooksCommended 2014
• Washington Post Top 10 Graphic Novels of the YearCommended 2014
• Ignatz Award for Best Graphic NovelWinner 2014
• Governor General's Literary Award for Children's IllustrationWinner 2014
• Eisner Award for Best New Graphic AlbumWinner 2015
• Quill & Quire Books of the YearCommended 2014
• CBC Best Books of the YearCommended 2014
• Governor General's Literary Award for Children's TextShort-listed 2014
• Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature, Honor BookCommended 2015
• CLA Young Adult Book AwardWinner 2015
• Randolph Caldecott Honor BookCommended 2015
• Doug Wright Award for Best BookShort-listed 2015
• CBC Bookie Award for Best Young Adult NovelWinner 2015
• Boston Globe Best Young Adult Novels of the YearCommended 2014
• Publishers Weekly Best Books of the YearCommended 2014

“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

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

“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

“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

“Together, the Tamakis have created a quiet masterpiece. . . . Contrary to its title, This One Summer is timeless.” — Quill & Quire, STARRED REVIEW

“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

“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

“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

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