Week 12: Comics by Women


This One Summer by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki left me wanting to read more. With the abrupt ending leaving you questioning what was going to happen next, I came to a realization that the book was called “This One Summer” for a reason – it’s a graphic novel about the story of a girl’s summer, and that was the only information we were going to get. This One Summer is about a girl named Rose and her bittersweet pains of growing up. Rose and her parents have been coming to a cottage on Awago Beach each and every summer since Rose was just five years old. It’s the one place that Rose can return to each year and be confident that things will have stayed the same, however, this year is a bit different for her. She is growing up, her family seems to be going through a rough path after they stopped trying to have another baby, and even Rose’s friendship with her childhood friend Windy is different now. The story of Rose’s summer is beautifully written and illustrated by the Tamaki cousins, and I would highly recommend this graphic novel to anyone.

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