This One Summer is a beautiful graphic novel by cousins Jillian and Mariko Tamaki that follows two young girls as they spend their summer learning about themselves, their families, and what it means to be a girl in the world today. The story is told through Rose’s perspective and we watch through her eyes the dangerous messages growing girls receive about themselves and their place in the world through everyday occurrences.
The reader is introduced firstly to a tragic family secret that Rose doesn’t understand. What she sees is her father, lively and fun, ready to create the best summer he can for his daughter. And Rose sees her mother, depressed and irritable, unwilling to participate in family activities. A defining moment for Rose is when her parents get into an argument and, feeling pushed away, her father leaves their summer home for a brief period. This is the first message Rose is introduced to that shapes her view of what it means to be a girl or woman. As Rose’s mother battles depression related to a specific tragedy, Rose struggles to connect with or give compassion to her. She sees her mother as disruptive and annoying, hindering the fun Rose is supposed to be having. After a fight with her mom Rose says, “Dad’s happy with just me. You don’t even want to be happy.” Rose’s parents are her first role models, as is true for many of us. What is modeled to her young naïve eyes through the behavior of her parents is that women are irritating, needy, annoying, and self-centered. It is modeled to her that men are fun, adventurous, happy, and exciting. While definitely a narrow-minded point of view, Rose is young and has not been introduced to other perspectives. These views of men and women are only solidified through other experiences she has throughout the story.
Next in the story we see Rose with her best friend Windy. They like to go to Brewster’s, the only store in their tiny beach town of Awago. Here they encounter a group of older boys and girls including Dunc and his girlfriend Jenny. At one-point Dunc and his friend call out to their girlfriends and say, “Okay, sluts. Let’s go.” One of the girls gets upset and the boys dismiss her, calling her a slut again. Later Rose and Windy sit on Windy’s couch and joke about how crazy the girls are, and Rose says, “They’re sluts.” Rose’s mother says she doesn’t like Rose talking that way but Rose and Windy leave before there can be a real discussion. During these scenes, underlying questions are being presented to Rose. How are boys supposed to talk about girls? How are girls supposed to feel about that? Is it okay for boys to call girls sluts and should girls laugh along or did it matter that one of the girls got upset?
One of the more subtly heartbreaking scenes is when Rose and Windy are watching one of the many horror movies they rented from Brewster’s. Rose says to Windy, “It sort of seems like every bad thing that happens in this move happens because of a girl. Did you notice that? Less guys would die if they weren’t having to rescue these dumb girls who can’t save themselves.” The scene is so quickly over but it is those lines, those messages that are being shown to Rose, that I think are the lens through which the rest of the story should be read. Rose is starting to verbalize her beliefs about girls, that they are not as smart, helpful, or important as boys. That girls cause problems because they are dumb or too emotional.
I think This One Summer is a wonderfully nuanced look at what growing up as a girl feels like. It is only a short snapshot of a girl’s life but it covers so many themes and captures how confusing girlhood can be. Rose sees and hears things that are too complex for her to figure out on her own but all together she interprets these things to mean that girls are typically problems in the lives of men, and I think this is something many girls struggle with growing up. This story points out the subliminal and overt messages that are being sent through the lens of misogyny and sexism and how this hurts young girls who are always observing and absorbing what is around them. In the end I loved Rose’s story, her confusion, anger, and curiosity and I loved the many female voices that Rose and the reader got to encounter and try to understand.
This book seems like it accurately reflects how confusing and troubling growing up in a society with situations pitted against women is. It’s interesting that it’s written from the perspective of girls learning about the way the world works and interpreting situations in ways we would never think to with the growing movement of equal rights for women. The illustrations are pleasing to the eye and convey more than a beautiful picture–they convey a greater message about the way women are treated and viewed in the world around us.
I found this post intriguing because I felt related to the topic of discussion — being a girl. Although, my attention was partially lost towards the beginning few paragraphs because it tended to feel more like a summary of the book than a critique, I felt that the end of the post really offered a good insight into how the book took on a deeper meaning. As I was reading this post, I could not help but think that it would have been interesting if you may have related one of your personal experiences to a similar experience in the book to give the writing more of a “blog” feel. Overall, I felt that you presented the information in a very engaging manner and the visuals that you picked help bring to life the book that you vividly described.