Stunningly drawn, this graphic novel brilliantly charts the deep and sometimes desperate conflicts and moods that prevail in teen years. Teenage witch Skim keeps a diary in which she records all her thoughts, hopes and fears. There’s the grief and anxiety following the suicide of a boy in school, her own inner loneliness and then the complexities of romance. Easily accessible, it gives a sympathetic and realistic view of adolescence.
| Primary Genre | Young Adult Fiction |
A New York Times Book Review choice as one of the 10 Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2008.
Skim is Kimberly Keiko Cameron, a not-slim, would-be Wiccan goth stuck in a private girls' school in Toronto. When a classmate's boyfriend kills himself because he was rumoured to be gay, the school goes into mourning overdrive, each clique trying to find something to hold on to and something to believe in. It's a weird time to fall in love, but that's high school, and that's what happens to Skim when she starts to meet in secret with her neo-hippie English teacher, Ms. Archer. But when Ms. Archer abruptly leaves, Skim struggles to cope with her confusion and isolation, armed with her trusty journal and a desire to shed old friendships while cautiously approaching new ones.
Depression, love, sexual identity, crushes, manipulative peers --teen life in all its dramatic complexities is explored in this touching, pitch-perfect, literary graphic masterpiece. Cousins Mariko and Jillian Tamaki collaborate brilliantly in this poignant glimpse into the heartache of being sixteen.
Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.7
Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.3
Describe how a particular story's or drama's plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.6
Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.
Skim features in the following genres: Young Adult Fiction, Children’s, Teenage and Educational
Skim is available in Paperback
Skim was written by Mariko Tamaki and published by Groundwood Books
Skim has 141 pages
£13.49
