This One Summer is a re-read for me. It is also the book I have read in the past few years specifically from the Banned Book List put out by the ALA that makes me scratch my head the most. It is because this is the book that hit #1 most challenged in 2016 and was why I read it in 2017. It then came back to the top ten in 2018. It did not make sense to me then, and it makes little sense to me now.
Not that challenging and banning books makes a lot of sense to me anyway, but sometimes it is easier to follow the logic people are deploying. It was banned and challenged because it includes LGBTQIA+ characters, drug use and profanity, and it was considered sexually explicit with mature themes.
This book is what it says on the tin: the story of one summer with two preteen girls, Rose and Windy, as they navigate their understandings of the world and relationships around them. They are on the edge of the next phase, constantly peeking over the barrier and trying to understand what they are seeing and hearing. The Tamakis (cousins Mariko and Jillian) capture the mood of this time in our lives beautifully, showing the reader using the art but also obfuscating slightly in the text.
Whether this book has themes to mature for its audience depends on the audience. I have seen it listed as intended for readers twelve and over and that makes sense. That’s the age of the characters. Children at that age, and those right around it, are experiencing the things that this book tackles. There is some profanity, especially dealing with the older teen characters, there is also a teen pregnancy and the burgeoning questions of sex and sexuality that the tweens experience.
Literary prizes have their merits and their detractors, but I think it is interesting to highlight that This One Summer was the first graphic novel to receive the Caldecott Honor for “Most Distinguished American Picture Book for Children” and the Printz Honor for “Excellence in Literature for Young Adults” in 2015.
faintingviolet 