Skim (graphic novel)

Skim
Cover of the first edition of Skim.
Date	2008
Publisher	Groundwood Books
Creative team
Writers	Mariko Tamaki
Artists	Jillian Tamaki
Original publication
Language	English
ISBN

Skim is a Canadian graphic novel written by Mariko Tamaki and drawn by Jillian Tamaki. Set in 1993, in a Toronto Catholic girls high school, it is about an outsider girl called Skim.

Skim is a "not slim" sixteen-year-old Japanese-Canadian who is a student at an all-girls Catholic school. She is known as a Goth, and practices Wicca. When popular girl Katie Matthews gets dumped by her athlete boyfriend, who days later kills himself, the entire school goes into mourning overdrive. With the school counsellors breathing down her neck and the popular clique (including Katie's best friend Julie Peters) forming a new club in its wake, Skim finds herself in the crosshairs, deepening her "depression". And if things cannot get more complicated, Skim starts to fall for an equally quirky teacher.

Skim was originally thought of as a "gothic Lolita story", and what eventually became part I of the story was run as a 30-page preview in an indie magazine. Mariko Tamaki wrote the story much like a play's script, and Jillian Tamaki illustrated the novel as she saw fit.

Reception was positive. In their review, Publishers Weekly called Skim an "auspicious graphic novel debut" with a "fine ear for dialogue" that is "rich in visuals and observations".Paul Gravett called it "the most sophisticated and sensitive North American graphic novel debut of the year." In Kliatt it said that the narrative manages to avoid the usual cliches of a coming of age story. The Toronto Star compared the story to Dead Poets Society and Heathers.

The CCBC recommended Skim for ages 14 and up, saying that Skim's struggles have universal qualities. The Metro News praised that the narrative voice sounds authentic.

Skim was listed as one of the Young Adult Library Services Association's 2009 Great Graphic Novels for Teens award. Skim also won the 2008 Ignatz Award for Outstanding Graphic Novel.