This One Summer
Author: Mariko Tamaki
Illustrator: Jullian Tamaki
Grade Level: 7-12
Genre: Fiction
Awards: Caldecott Medal, Gran Guinigi for Best Writer
Summary: This graphic novel follows the story of two friends: Rose and Windy. Spending the summer at their lake houses, the two girls spend the summer days talking, swimming, and adventuring. Things being to change when Rose develops a crush on a boy named Duncan. As the girls spend time around Duncan, they are exposed to a lot of things. Duncan ends up getting another girl at the lake pregnant and ignores her. Rose ends up seeing the young girl drowning and calls out to her mother to help. After her mother saves the young girl, Rose and her mom renew their relationship as mother and daughter.
Evaluation: After reading this book, I wasn't surprised to find articles of unimpressed and shocked readers. Some even wondered why this book received a Caldecott medal due to its mature themes. After seeing how many students enjoyed and related to this book, I would not mind including it in my classroom library. The illustrations are amazing and the story is fascinating. It will definitely keep the reader engaged.
The age appropriateness is between seventh and twelfth grade. If you are teaching younger grades and really want to include this book in your library, I would encourage you to get parents' permission before a student checks out the book from your classroom. This book includes sexual terms, cursing, teen pregnancy, and suicide.
Seventh and eighth graders would love this graphic novel. The illustrations paint such vivid pictures of the characters' emotions. Students who chose to read this book could create their own "graphic novel book talk." Instead of using a poster with a lot of words to describe the summary of their book, they could draw illustrations of the overall summary (without giving away the ending, of course).
Summary: This graphic novel follows the story of two friends: Rose and Windy. Spending the summer at their lake houses, the two girls spend the summer days talking, swimming, and adventuring. Things being to change when Rose develops a crush on a boy named Duncan. As the girls spend time around Duncan, they are exposed to a lot of things. Duncan ends up getting another girl at the lake pregnant and ignores her. Rose ends up seeing the young girl drowning and calls out to her mother to help. After her mother saves the young girl, Rose and her mom renew their relationship as mother and daughter.
Evaluation: After reading this book, I wasn't surprised to find articles of unimpressed and shocked readers. Some even wondered why this book received a Caldecott medal due to its mature themes. After seeing how many students enjoyed and related to this book, I would not mind including it in my classroom library. The illustrations are amazing and the story is fascinating. It will definitely keep the reader engaged.
The age appropriateness is between seventh and twelfth grade. If you are teaching younger grades and really want to include this book in your library, I would encourage you to get parents' permission before a student checks out the book from your classroom. This book includes sexual terms, cursing, teen pregnancy, and suicide.
Seventh and eighth graders would love this graphic novel. The illustrations paint such vivid pictures of the characters' emotions. Students who chose to read this book could create their own "graphic novel book talk." Instead of using a poster with a lot of words to describe the summary of their book, they could draw illustrations of the overall summary (without giving away the ending, of course).
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