this one summer by mariko and jillian tamaki

She draws a birthday card for her mother as Windy dances around the room. In an aside, Rose admits she learned about sex from school. Windy finds it disgusting, but Rose admits she would do it if she was in love. During the movie, Windy becomes terrified and distracts herself by asking Rose about oral sex. They overhear some teenage girls talking about sperm and blow jobs, and the teens yell after Rose and Windy, teasing them. Rose and Windy’s families eat dinner together, and when dusk falls, the girls decide to rent The Texas Chain Saw Massacre from Brewster’s. It is an ordinary day in which Rose reads, eats lunch, bikes, plays games with her father and Windy, and examines the way her hand appears through a translucent leaf.

Rose repeats this word at her family’s cottage, and her mother warns her not to speak about people that way.Ī series of splash pages and large, textless frames follow, depicting the next day’s events and the time which they occurred. When the pair heads to Brewster’s for candy, they overhear Duncan’s friend call two girls “sluts”. She and Rose joke about breasts until a couple of adults pass by and scold them. They discuss the breast sizes of various girls and women they know, and Windy admits that, because she is adopted, she is uncertain how big hers will be. Rose invites her mother to the beach, but she declines, so Rose meets Windy there. Rose’s mother found them in time and warned them of the plants’ poisonous nature. She remembers collecting rocks with her father and the time she and Windy collected milkweeds to eat, assuming they were magical. The next day, Rose thinks back on her younger days at Awago Beach as her mother, Alice, braids her hair. Rose laughs it off, but Windy seems uncomfortable in the situation (later calling Duncan “the Dud”). There, Rose and Windy watch as the clerk, Duncan, flirts with and kisses a girl, Jenny, in front of them. They go to the beach and catch up on their summers so far, and then head to the local store, Brewster’s, for some candy. She and Rose are summer friends who have known each other since they were young, and they talk to each other about everything. Windy is 10 years old, passionate about music, and lives an eclectic, spiritual life with her mother Evelyn Windy’s father is often away working. Twelve-year-old Rose is on her way to the beach for the summer, and when she and her parents, Evan and Alice, arrive, she leaves almost immediately to see Windy. This One Summer takes place during a summer at Awago Beach (in Ontario, Canada) as preteens Rose and Windy discover that adulthood is more complicated than it seems. This guide is based on the 2014 Groundwood Books edition.Ĭontent Warning: This One Summer discusses sexuality, suicide, a miscarriage, and includes profanity.

This one summer by mariko and jillian tamaki