Assuming that the youth’s suicide is a romantic heterosexual tragedy, the students spiral into group hysteria, led by the marvellously named guidance counsellor, Mrs. Skim’s struggle to become an individual is set against a subplot about a popular girl’s jock boyfriend, who has committed suicide. Skim’s mourning, loss, and isolation are palpable. Skim begins stalking the teacher (who withdraws) and becomes estranged from her best friend. Archer, after a talk in the woods outside school leads to a kiss. Bullied by cruel cliques and hungry for understanding, Skim develops a sexual crush on her English teacher, Ms. Skim and her best friend Lisa are outsiders at school. Each entry begins with “Dear diary” and portrays the day in text and art, creating an immediacy and intimacy at the centre of the story. The tale is narrated as excerpts from Skim’s diary and chronicles her life over the course of one autumn, ending at Christmas. She’s also a visual artist grappling with her emerging gay identity. Skim is an overweight grade 10 student stuck in the suburbs at a private girls’ school, dealing with her separated parents, absorbed in wicca, tarot cards, astrology, and philosophy, and rebelling against conformity. Set in a very recognizable Toronto in 1993 and influenced by early 1990s riot-grrl and goth culture, Skim is both a character study of 16-year-old Kimberly Keiko Cameron (aka Skim) and a fast-paced high school drama. Mariko Tamaki also adapted an earlier version of it as a stage play. Skim was first published in shorter form as a special edition of the magazine Kiss Machine in 2005. Skim is a unique creation by Mariko Tamaki, a Toronto-based writer and playwright, and her cousin, illustrator Jillian Tamaki, formerly of Edmonton and now living in New York, whose work has appeared in The New Yorker and Maclean’s.
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