Skim by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki

Tamaki, M. (2008). Skim. Illustrations by Jillian Tamaki. Toronto, Ontario. Groundwood Books.

ISBN-13: 978-0-88899-753-1

Plot Summary

Asian-American Kim is called Skim by her friends because she’s not. Skim attends an all girls private school and is not part of the “in crowd.” She and her only real friend, Lisa, explore Wiccan goth culture, consult tarot cards, and smoke outside school. When their classmate Katie is suddenly dumped by her boyfriend and then kills himself, the entire school mourns and wonders about his true sexual orientation. Counselors arrive and the popular girls start a Girls Celebrate Life! club. Skim sinks into depression as she appears to the others as someone to be concerned about. She develops a close relationship with her eccentric English teacher, Ms. Archer, and is devastated when Ms. Archer unexpectedly leaves school to teach at another. After Lisa persuades Skim to attend the school dance, which is a fundraiser for a service for depressed people, Katie and Skim become better friends as Skim begins to see Katie in a new light. Her friendship with Lisa changes when Lisa begins dating a boy from another school, and as a result, Skim learns about the many forms of love.

Critical Evaluation

Skim is a graphic novel and is written in first-person narration, often in a diary-type format, from the point of view of the main character, Skim. The diary entries, internal narration, and dialogue are seamlessly woven together and give the characters a realistic voice that is self-aware and often deprecatingly humorous. The setting of an all girls private school is significant because it magnifies the relationships they have with each other and brings attention to how Skim stands out: she is not thin like many of the other girls and it is evident in the graphic drawings. The pen line drawings are expressive and add dimension to the characters and setting. They are often in contrast with the narration and the effect can be ironic. The illustrations and narration work together to bring the characters and story to life with all the confusion of a teen-age girl’s thoughts. The last full-page illustration is especially significant. Two small pullouts show Skim walking away. These illustrations are laid on top and to the left of the larger image of a dark and tangled wooded area. There is a theme here; life only gets more complicated as you go on. Readers will also appreciate and connect with all the confusion of being a young adult.

 

Reader’s Annotation

 

Kim, a.k.a. “Skim,” goes to an all-girls high school where a classmate’s ex-boyfriend commits suicide, throwing the entire school into grief overdrive. Skim must navigate through depression, Wicca, friendship, crushes, and sexual orientation and learns that everything you do leaves a mark on other people.

Author Information

 

Mariko Tamaki is a performer and writer in Toronto. She has appeared on stage with a variety of troupes including PPPO (Pretty, Porky, and Pissed Off), which was founded in 1997 and lasted eight years. The women of PPPO performed productions of stories about large women with large attitude; “Move it Fatty” and “Wide Side Story” are some of their plays. Members of the troupe still enjoy occasional guest appearances and performances. Tamaki has also starred in a solo production of her graphic novel, Skim, in which she herself played the main character.

Tamaki is also a columnist for two Toronto magazines as well as a graduate student of Linguistic Anthropology at the University of Toronto. There, she also studies language, performance, and gender. Her humor shines through her webpage as she lists things she thinks are fantastic including dinner parties, music with a good beat, and documentaries about people growing older.

More information about Mariko Tamaki can be found on her website, where you can also contact her:

http://www.marikotamaki.com/

Genre

Young adult

Graphic novel

Alternate format

Coming of age

Suicide

High School

Depression

Friendship

Curriculum Ties

N/A

Book Talking Ideas

How does a school react when something tragic happens?

Reading Level/ Interest Age

Appropriate for ages 14 and up

Challenge Issues

Language, homosexuality

Challenge Defense

If it were challenged, I would consult ALA's Strategies and Tips for Dealing with Challenges to Library  Materials.

I would also cite these reviews:

Book Links (A.L.A.) 01/01/10

New York Times 11/09/08

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books starred 05/01/08

Publishers Weekly 02/04/08

Horn Book 10/01/08

Wilson's Junior High School 01/09/10

Horn Book starred 07/01/08

Wilson's Senior High School 06/01/10

Why did I include this title?

I haven’t read very many graphic novels, and after doing a little research, I sought out this book. I’m glad I did. The illustrations make the text so poignant and meaningful. I remember in particular one scene where Katie “smiles the smallest smile on the planet” and in the illustration, you can just make it out. The subject matter is handled with layers of humor, honesty, and depth that seems only possible with the illustrations. I am hooked and I look forward to reading more graphic novels.

The Body of Christopher Creed by Carol Plum-Ucci

Plum-Ucci, C. (2000). The body of christopher creed. New York: Harcourt, Inc.

ISBN-13: 978-0-15-206386-3

Plot Summary

Torey Adams spends his senior year away from his hometown of Steepleton, and away from his friends, at Rothborne, a boarding school. He could not bear to face the people there after what happened in the woods. During his junior year, a socially awkward classmate whom he had punched out in the sixth grade and had not spoken much to since, disappeared. That was the year Christopher Creed, after sending an email to the school’s principal indicating his either running away or suicide, went missing. Now, in the aftermath, most of Torey’s friends at school, including his girlfriend, take Christopher’s disappearance lightly, too lightly for Torey who feels bad for Christopher. Torey befriends Ali and her boyfriend, Bo, and together they launch a plot to find out more information about Christopher and find him. When their plan backfires, Torey explores the woods behind his house because a psychic had told him he would find Christopher in the woods. Torey enters an ancient Indian burial ground, breaks his leg, and stumbles into an underground cave. There are wrapped Indian bodies as well as an unwrapped body that is newer. At first, Torey believes it to be Chris, but then realizes it is Bob Haines before the air causes it to disintegrate. Christopher Creed remains missing.

Critical Evaluation

Told in flashback and first person narration, The Body of Christopher Creed begins with Torey in his new school recalling events that occurred the year prior and still searching for information. The flashback creates a frame of the story with the beginning and ending taking place in the same location; perhaps the significance is that a person’s past will always affect them and you cannot truly get away from it as Torey wanted to do by finishing high school somewhere else. The reader sees the world through Torey’s eyes and watches as he changes. Torey is a well-developed, dynamic character. In the beginning, he is judgmental of the “boon,” those students from the wrong side of town, but later, he begins to see them in a different light and ultimately changes his idea of who his friends are. Other labels the high school students apply to each other, such as jock and nerd, are common in real life as well. Perhaps readers will be able to see how being labeled affects a person’s actions; the primary example is, of course, Christopher Creed, labeled as an outsider, who essentially creates a separate, imaginary identity for himself and ultimately is pushed outside of reality by disappearing. Readers will be able to recognize a Christopher Creed in any school they attend. The framework of the story also adds a touch of irony: in searching for the missing Christopher Creed, Torey himself goes missing by attending the boarding school. Readers might see how people’s actions affect others in ways they might not be aware of and that what people believe to be true is just that, their perception. Torey, as well as the reader, will see that some mysteries will never be solved. The trick is in discovering how we get over them once they have changed our lives and move on.

Reader’s Annotation

 

High school junior Torey Adams seems to have a perfect life. When Christopher Creed, the socially awkward school outcast, mysteriously disappears, he struggles with doubts and questions that lead him to a dramatic realization. Her father and paternal grandmother operated funeral homes and much of her imagination can be attributed to lying awake at night above the funeral parlor and wondering what the noises were downstairs.

 

Author Information

 

Carol Plum-Ucci was born August 16, 1957 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. As she was growing up, she always knew she wanted to be a writer. Her father and paternal grandmother operated funeral homes and much of her imagination can be attributed to lying awake at night above the funeral parlor and wondering what the noises were downstairs. In fact, one of her favorite memories was of taking her friends down into the funeral home and telling them there was a body there to scare them when, in fact, there really was a body down there (I love her humor). Plum-Ucci attended Purdue University where she received her BA in communication in 1979 and then received her Masters degree from Rutgers. She worked as Assistant Producer to the Miss America Pageant in 1984. She has also been a ghostwriter, critic, speechwriter, and essayist. Her most famous work is The Body of Christopher Creed, for which she won the Printz Honor Book Award in 2002. It was also named as a finalist for the Edgar Allen Poe Award.

Plum-Ucci very actively communicates with her readers. She strongly encourages them to contact her for help writing. She welcomes students and teachers to Skype her. She speaks at many schools. Plum-Ucci also takes local school interns during the summer months.

For more information about Carol Plum-Ucci, including what her favorite songs are, please visit her website:

http://www.carolplumucci.com/index.html

If you enjoyed The Body of Christopher Creed, you will be happy to know that there is finally a sequel. Following Christopher Creed was published September 6, 2011.

ISBN-13: 978-0-15-204759-7

Yay!

Genre

Young Adult

Mystery

Running away

Suicide

 

Curriculum Ties

Lenape Indians, burial grounds

Book Talking Ideas

Mental illness, burial grounds

Reading Level/ Interest Age

Characters are in high school; appropriate for grades 9 and up

Challenge Issues

Has been challenged for age-appropriateness.

Challenge Defense

In defense of a challenge, I would cite these reviews as well as ALA's Strategies and Tips for Dealing with Challenges to Library Materials.

Book Report 11/01/00

Notable/Best Books (A.L.A.) 01/19/01

Booklist 03/15/01

Publishers Weekly 05/22/00

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books 04/01/00

School Library Journal starred 07/01/00

Kirkus Review 05/15/00

Voice of Youth Advocates (V.O.Y.A.) 08/01/00

Why did I include this title?

I first read The Body of Christopher Creed and was moved by it. I recognized many of the characters as the same types of people I went to school with, and Christopher Creed could have been any number of outcasts I knew. It made me think about my own actions towards them. This book is a great mystery and the scene in the Indian burial ground still replays in my mind even today.

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Asher, J. (2007). Thirteen reasons why. New York: Razorbill.

ISBN-13: 978-1-59514-171-2

Plot Summary

One day, high school student Clay Jensen receives a box in the mail containing seven audio cassettes. When he finally finds a cassette player (who has cassette players anymore?), he is shocked when he hears the voice on the tape: it is Hannah Baker, who had taken pills to kill herself just two weeks prior. One classmate is the focus of each side of the tape, and the thirteen sides tell the story of the thirteen reasons why each person somehow factors into Hannah taking her own life. With a map that had been mysteriously placed in his locker a few weeks ago, Clay follows the directions Hannah gives and essentially walks in her footsteps. He experiences anger, horror, sadness, and frustration as he listens to all the other stories of people he knows and anxiously waits for the tape that tells his story and how he factors into her suicide. Clay realizes how there were many moments that could have changed the outcome and with this notion, he reconnects with another girl who seems to be lost like Hannah was. Maybe this time, the outcome could be different.

Critical Evaluation

Told in the first-person narrative point of view, the reader experiences the raw emotion and thoughts running through Clay’s head as he listens to Hannah tell her story. Mostly alternating between Clay’s somber thoughts and Hannah’s biting narration, the author weaves together the lives of very different, yet authentic characters: the popular girl who would do anything to preserve her status, the scorned friend wanting revenge, the boy who rapes the passed-out girl at a party, the ineffective school counselor. Young adults will be able to recognize any of these characters in their own school and perhaps, in doing so, also recognize those who might need help. The chapters are divided up into tape sides A and B, so the anticipation builds as each tape brings Clay, as well as the reader, closer to the inevitable, tragic end. The tapes are Hannah’s words after her death, and, preserved forever and inescapable, they symbolize how every action has a reaction and everything has an effect on person, even if it is not immediately recognized.

 

Reader’s Annotation

 

Clay Jensen has just received a box of tapes from Hannah Baker, who killed herself two weeks ago. What does Hannah need to tell him, and how is his life going to change after hearing her posthumous words?

 

Author Information

 

Thirteen Reasons Why is Jay Asher’s first published novel. In his blog, Jay Asher explains, “I've worked at an independent bookstore, a chain bookstore, an outlet bookstore, and two public libraries. Before those jobs, I worked at a shoe store, a trophy shop, and an airline.” He shares that his idea for this novel came to him while working in Sheridan, Wyoming for six months. Besides his short stint in Wyoming, he has lived in California his entire life and continues to do so.

 

Born September 30, 1975, in Arcadia, California, Jay Asher grew up in a family that supported and encouraged his interests. He attended Cuesta College, a community college in San Luis Obispo, where he wrote two children’s books as assignments for a Children’s Literature class. He later attended California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, where he dropped out in his senior year to pursue writing. Thirteen Reasons Why (2007) is his only published book to date. A website called 13RWProject.com launched in May, 2011 as a place where fans of the book can record their reviews and experiences as text, photo or video.

 

More information about Jay Asher can be found at these websites:

 

http://www.jayasher.blogspot.com/

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/569269.Jay_Asher

Genre

Young Adult Fiction

Suicide

High School

Suspense

Curriculum Ties

N/A

Book Talking Ideas

What are the signs of depression? How do you deal with rumors? What do you do if you are experiencing suicidal thoughts? How difficult is it to be the new person at school?

Reading Level/ Interest Age

Characters are high school students; appropriate for grades 8 and up

Challenge Issues

Underage drinking, suicide, rape, sex

Challenge Defense

In defense of a challenge, I would cite these reviews as well as ALA's Strategies and Tips for Dealing with Challenges to Library Materials.

Booklist 09/01/07 review

School Library Journal 11/01/07 review

Horn Book 04/01/08 review

Voice of Youth Advocates (V.O.Y.A.) 02/01/08

Kirkus Review starred 09/01/07

Publishers Weekly 10/08/07 review

Why did I include this title?

Many of my eighth grade students have read this book or are reading it, and I was curious.