Tamaki, M., & Tamaki, J. (2014). This one summer (1.st ed.). New York, NY: First Second.

Up at her family’s cottage for the summer, Rose and her friend Windy spend their days watching horror movies, checking out the boys and spying on the older teens in town.  Rose’s mother is extremely depressed due to her miscarriage and eventually her father goes back to the city just to get away from her. When the local girl, Jenney, turns up pregnant, they realize that life will never be the same. The girls find out that being a woman is more complicated than Rose and Windy originally thought, and this one summer will show them what growing up really means.

With a lexile of 300 this graphic novel targets a reading audience of grades 9 – 12.  I enjoyed the illustrations: the pale shades of the images well represent the fluid nature of the teen aged years.   These seem to follow the thoughtful and reflective tone of the novel itself.  Personally I was more enchanted by the artwork and the detailing of the illustrator.  I would be cautious about allowing younger adolescents to read this on.  There are some sexual references and a significant amount of profanity that I feel might be inappropriate.  I’m not sure it would appeal to high school students as the protagonists are tween aged.