Skim

Skim is the book that started it all for the legendary Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki duo — and it remains one of the most quietly devastating coming-of-age stories in comics. Set in a Toronto Catholic girls’ school in 1993, it follows Kimberly Keiko “Skim” Cameron, a Wiccan-obsessed, manga-reading goth girl who doesn’t fit in anywhere. When the school goes into a tailspin after a popular boy dies by suicide, Skim is swept up in a grief culture she wants no part of — and finds herself falling for her female English teacher, Ms. Archer, in a first crush that’s tender, confusing, and achingly real.

What makes Skim special is what it doesn’t do. There are no melodramatic confrontations, no neat resolutions — just the messy, interior experience of a girl trying to figure out who she is while the world around her performs its own version of mourning. Jillian Tamaki’s expressive brushwork captures Skim’s slouching posture and private rituals with a physicality that makes every page feel lived-in, while Mariko Tamaki’s script is a masterclass in restraint, letting silences and small gestures carry the emotional weight. It’s the rare teen story that treats adolescence with total seriousness — no preachiness, no condescension.

The book earned immediate acclaim: an Ignatz Award, a Joe Shuster Award, a Doug Wright Award, and a place on the Governor General’s Award shortlist, while the American Library Association named it a Best Book for Young Adults. It launched the cousins onto the world stage and set the template for their later masterworks, This One Summer and Roaming.

Now back in print through Groundwood Books, Skim is essential reading for fans of Heartstopper, Blankets, and This One Summer. Pick up a copy today — and discover why this modern classic still moves readers nearly two decades on.