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Review: Skim

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Life as an outsider, can be rough for teenagers.  As being new to a place, you get everybody’s eyes on you, wondering who you are and if you fit in. Never mind you have your own anxieties, about how the school is going to be. The reality is most teenagers just want to be left alone, and be invisible.

I remember high school, being somewhat fun for myself as I had friends in just about all my classes and outside of them. I always wondered about those quiet kids that kept their heads down and tried to stay out of everybody’s way. As high school can be unforgiving and can also be memorable, it just all depends where you are in the class system. In Mariko and Jillian Tamaki’s Skim, one of those quiet teenagers endures a series of trials where she suddenly the ire in everyone’s eyesight.

In the opening pages we meet Skim, or as her government name is Kimberly, but some call her Goth, because she is a practicing Wicca. Her life is ordinary, until the boyfriend of the most popular girl, kills himself, and everyone looks at Skim, assuming she is the source of his demise. Her anxieties increase, as her depression becomes even worse, as her crush is a quirky teacher. By book’s end, she finds out she is the most normal person in her school, as the people around her, were the ones who struggled with fitting in.

Overall, an excellent book, that proves the Tamakis are masters of storytelling in sequential art. The story by Mariko Tamaki is relatable, funny and emotionally gratifying. The art by Jillian Tamaki is absorbing and beautiful. Altogether, a great book that’s a testimonial to being yourself is the only way to be.

Story: Mariko Tamaki Art: Jillian Tamaki
Story: 9.0 Art: 9.0 Overall: 9.0 Recommendation: Buy

Comics Herstory: Mariko Tamaki

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413lbcn6frl-_sy344_bo1204203200_Mariko Tamaki is a Japanese Canadian and Jewish Canadian author who has been publishing graphic novels since 2000. Her two most popular novels, Skim and This One Summer, were co-created with her cousin Jillian Tamaki. Mariko has also written a variety of other works, including fiction novels Cover Me and (You) Set Me on Fire, a book of essays titled Fake ID, and a graphic novel with artist Steve Rolston called Emiko Superstar.

Mariko and Jillian work particularly well together. Both Skim and This One Summer are critically acclaimed. Skim won an Ignatz Award, a Joe Shuster Award, and a Doug Wright Award, which are all awards for excellence and outstanding achievements in comics and cartooning. This One Summer won the Michael L. Printz Award (recognizing best young adult literature), and the Caldecott Honor (recognizing best picture book for children).

However, what makes these two graphic novels special isn’t the recognition, though the recognition isn’t undue. Skim, released in 2008, is set at an all-girls Catholic school in Toronto in 1993. The main character, Kimberly Keiko Cameron, is called “Skim” because “she is not.” The book’s plot is centered on relationships. Part of this involves Skim experiencing a drift away from her best friend, Lisa, but developing feelings of attraction toward an older woman. Some reviewers have argued that little happens in the way of plot, and while Skim isn’t Die Hard, Tamaki subtly conveys the oft-overlooked message that relationships change. Friendships fade. And that’s okay. It’s an important message for younger readers especially to hear.

thisonesummer-220This One Summer is also a subtle masterpiece. It tells the story of Rose and Windy, two friends who meet at the beach every year. It takes place in summer, a liminal period in which Rose and Windy find themselves suddenly more at odds with each other. Tamaki doesn’t shy away from the hard stuff, broaching uncomfortable topics with Rose’s parents’ frequent disagreements, the difficult secret Rose’s mother has been keeping from her daughter, and, of course, adolescence.

Although Skim, Rose, and Windy are closer to children than adults, Tamaki doesn’t maintain a bubble-like separation between an unrealistically sunshine-filled child’s world and a drab, tax-filled adult world in her novels. Instead, she favors more subtle but realistic emotions. This seems to be partly because the characters are in such transitional points in terms of age in their lives, but also partly because it gives the characters, and therefore the readers, a chance to study the adults through the eyes of a child. They are young, but not without depth, something that is certainly a valuable quality in Tamaki’s writing and an important kind of narrative in the genre.