Saturday, October 25, 2008

Skim by Mariko Tamaki

I really enjoyed Skim - both for its cinematic, emotional illustrations and its undaunted conversational dialogue. The storyline unfolds through the main character's lived and recalled experiences in her diary. There is a lot of internal conversation and struggle - confusion - that we all know so well. The images often speak volumes - and are breathtaking.

The caveat - when I say undaunted language - I mean it. This book has ALL the ingredients to make it controversial. Which made me love it all the more. Definitely on the upper tiers of YA.

I'm giving this one a Thumbs Up.

2 comments:

Josh B. said...

Hmm, I was origianlly thinking that I would vote no on this book because I just did not think it would have that much appeal, and while it was good, it simply did not seem great. However, I did enjoy it, and it does have some fantastic art.

One of my biggest faults with the book, is that I found the main character, and her friend, very hard to relate to, and frankly kind of annoying. This may not be the case for a teen reading it, but I still have a feeling that all but a small group of teens would also find her a bit annoying.

However, After reading your review I find my self back on the fence. I am going to give it another read now and see what I think. It is certainly worth a look.

pandamans said...

Oh - they are definitely annoying. But I think that adds to the realism of it.