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Skim, written and illustrated by sisters Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki, chronicles the ups and downs of high school life through the eyes of Kim.

What I liked:

• One aspect of nikkei, and, more broadly, Asian American and/or Asian diaspora art that I particularly appreciate is the care with which I feel these creators depict Asians on the page. This feeling was especially strong in Jillian Tamaki’s illustrations of Kim, who appears unabashedly herself at all times, with no apparent concerns about taking up space or catering to someone else’s expectations regarding her appearance. I especially enjoyed the scene where Kim bleaches her hair, not only because it may have been a reference to the blond/orange dye fad that swept Japan in my childhood, but also because Kim appears to make this choice on her own terms, for herself. Mariko Tamaki’s text reinforces Kim’s strong sense of self, her matter-of-fact responses to the people and situations around her never wavering from the core of who she is, in spite of the considerable emotional turmoil she undergoes over the course of the story.
• Jillian Tamaki brilliantly pays homage to Japanese (nihonjin) art styles while simultaneously utilizing her own unique character design for Kim. It was fascinating to see facial features that call to mind Edo-period art on every page, in a story with settings and themes quite distant from Japanese (nippon) culture. What prompted Tamaki to choose this particular style for Kim’s face?
• Although race and ethnicity do not appear to be overt themes in this story, I noticed multiple characters who appeared to be Asian, with the majority of the other characters appearing to be white. I’m curious about Kim’s relationships with the white characters closest to her, specifically Lisa. Lisa and Kim often have rather direct, terse exchanges, and for the most part, it was difficult for me to discern the true root of the eventual breakup of their friendship. There are certainly moments when I feel Lisa is directing racial microaggressions at Kim, which, while appearing to make Kim uncomfortable and/or unhappy, are not explicitly linked to racism in so many words. At other moments, I feel Lisa simply does not understand Kim’s personality, but I do not know if this is also rooted in racism – specifically, the kind of racism where the white friend speaks over the Asian friend and thus makes assumptions about the Asian friend because the Asian friend never has a chance to speak for themselves – or if this lack of understanding would still have occurred even if both girls were, for example, white. Lisa repeats many of Julie’s assumptions about Kim’s supposed thoughts of suicide to Kim, which makes me wonder if Lisa, consciously or not, is being swayed by peer pressure, a powerful force in high school. I do not know if the Tamaki sisters intended to depict how subtly racialization may affect the lives of students of color, sometimes without the student of color even recognizing the experience for what it is, but I can certainly relate to Kim’s experiences in this regard when I look back on former friendships with white classmates.

What I learned:

• Is it common for covens and AA groups to overlap? I do not know enough about either subject to recognize whether the Tamaki sisters were attempting to be humorous or to make some sort of pop culture reference, but this part of the story did expand my understanding of what a coven has the potential to represent for different people.
• It took me a bit to realize Kim attends a religious school. Why did the Tamaki sisters choose this setting? I do not know much about the experiences of nikkei students at religious schools, but I plan to look into works by nikkei scholars on this subject.

Questions I had:

• How do the Tamaki sisters situate themselves and their work in the broader landscape of nikkei art and literature? What would each of them have to say regarding the concept of ‘nikkei literature’ or ‘nikkei art?’
• Did the Tamaki sisters envision a particular audience for this book? Do they have differing opinions on the ideal audience? If so, why?

Follow-up:

• I know I have other works by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki in my TBR somewhere, which I look forward to reading once I find them.