When you're a chubby, Japanese-Canadian goth girl saddled with the nickname Skim, life is not easy. When you have an increasingly powerful crush on your English teacher, and your best friend is being lured away to greener pastures by the popular girls, it feels like life is already the worst it can get. The book follows Skim's life over a year at a girls’ school, and for all of the girls who aren't princesses, divas, or goody-two-shoes, Skim's is a life you can relate to. Given the topics addressed in this volume --- suicide, sexuality, religion and taboo student/teacher romance --- you'd think the book would be weighed down with issues. Fortunately for us, it's not --- all of the potential hot topics get dialed down as they are filtered through Skim's sometimes melancholy, sometimes hopeful point of view, leaving us with a compelling window into one teen's life.

The great moments in this book are the small ones. Skim is giving Wicca a go, hoping that she can find something greater in its rituals. She can't help but be skeptical that, in the end, it's a little bit silly, especially as she meets the more oddball practitioners in her town. The engaging Ms. Archer, the English teacher who challenges her students to take the adventuresome and creative path, floats through Skim's life trailing flowing skirts and a dashing twinkle in her eye. Her one sweet kiss in the woods is monumentally important to Skim, and you can almost feel the breeze in the trees heighten the tingle of desire. The cold rain that Skim stands in across from Mrs. Archer's doorstep, however, is just as penetrating, as Skim wills Ms. Archer to notice her, rescue her, and pretend that they're not student and teacher, just for a minute.

Skim is the perfect heroine for the awkward, quiet girls who live on the fringes of everyone else's dramas. We've all either been that girl or know that girl. Skim is not about to gossip about her life, even with her best friend, and keeps all her longing and her pain behind sarcastic remarks and a lot of silence. She's just trying to figure it all out before she loses track of the good points in her life and her heart breaks too much to be mended.

What really stands out about SKIM is the art --- Jillian Tamaki's fluid, evocative ink illustrations capture Skim's mood and perspective deftly, and the stretches of just watching the world go by are that much more interesting. Those with a keen eye will note the parallels between the art and traditional Japanese paintings and woodcuts, but the bottom line is that these pages are beautiful. The best part of this story is that the art and the slow progression of events reflect how many people keep most of what they're feeling inside and only let it out unwillingly, when emotion overwhelms reserve. In a world full of young women who often range from devious queen bee to spunky heroine, it's refreshing to see a book about the observer on the sidelines.