In 2016, libraries in Henning, Minnesota and Longwood, Florida removed This One Summer from their shelves after parents complained of the book's explicit and graphic use of profanity and mature themes such as teenage pregnancy and miscarriage, sexual references and crudity, explicit offensive name calling ("fucking prick/asshole etc) and drug use. The adults in this story are bad role models who call young women "sluts", dring beer and take drugs. The teenagers frequently use expressions such as " Fucking" and "jerky shit" and talk of "breasts", "Tits", and "sext ta-tas" . They rent the Chainsaw Massacre Dvd to watch, discuss (and watch) other horror movies, talk about oral sex "blow jobs", "getting laid", mock a pregnant girl about birth control and "..fucking condoms", and express the view that "...it's stupid that (pregnant) girls can't take care of their stuff and then everything is fucked up.Maybe she deserves it". The pregnat girl retaliates with: " You think you are so fucking cool....you're nothing but a douchebag with a penis".
Verdict: IrishParents do not recommend this graphic novel for study in the English classroom. Many parents will be unhappy at the crude, offensive and immature manner in which mature themes are dealt with.
Plot of This One Summer (Taken from Wikipedia)
Rose has been coming to a cottage in Awago every summer and meeting her summer friend, Windy, as long as she can remember.[5] Rose is about eighteen months older than Windy and is the narrator of the story.[6] This summer, they start to explore their interest in boys and pay attention to the emotional lives of adults around them.[5] Most of the adults and teenagers in the village (and in their families) are a "rogues' gallery of sad and burnt-out would-be role models."[6] This is emphasized as Rose also begins to realize her mother, Alice, is depressed following her miscarriages and infertility issues.[1] One of the people Rose and Windy meet at Awago includes Jenny, a reluctantly pregnant teenager.[1] After Jenny drinks too much, Alice (Rose's Mum) saves her from drowning and the novel concludes when the two recount Alice's miscarriage in a lake.[1]