There aren't really words to describe how much I enjoyed Skim. I felt like I really knew her by the end, that she had let me in on all of her deepest secrets, all of her insecure thoughts, but I think I learned more about life than I did about her.
To me, (S)kim seemed to be the stereotypical adolescent. She didn't quite fit in with everyone around her, she wasn't really fond of her home life, she was struggling with her new found crush, and she didn't know how to express her self (or perhaps she just didn't care to). (S)kim was so concerned with acknowledging her distaste for stuff that we really didn't learn too much about her. Even her thoughts appear to be filtered, for the most part. What intrigued me the most was the fact that she crossed out her own thoughts, as if she didn't want us toe hear her say them, but really she couldn't hide anything from us.
Or maybe she was hiding everything.
Is (S)kim so insecure that she can't even think the truth because she doesn't trust us?
I do think there was a lot of truth in what (S)kim told us, but I think it is fair to assume that her guard was up almost the entire time. She told us what she wanted to tell us, just enough to pull us in, but not enough to fully know who she was. Luckily, while she was crossing out thoughts and possibly keeping quiet about various things, the illustration gave us a deeper look into her life that even she might not have been able to explain.
I guess I liked the secrecy though. It felt real. Why should she tell us everything? If she can't trust her own friend, how can she trust perfect strangers? But then again, maybe the person she didn't trust was herself. Maybe she needed to write through her feelings in order to make sense of it all. I liked Skim. It was a really cool way to tell a story, and I felt myself longing for more in the end. I guess that's the truest test of success - leaving your readers wishing that the story would go on forever...
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You know you've read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend. - Paul Sweeney
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Kim is a typical adolescent, not popular, not quirky like Charlie, not bold like Frankie, nor as independent as Ben... It was brave to create a character as plain in a lot of ways as Kim...
ReplyDeleteThis would have been a great questions to explore in class: Is (S)kim so insecure that she can't even think the truth because she doesn't trust us?
With the success of this book, I wonder if the Tamaki sisters will create another book about Kim.
I've think you've got it here: "Is (S)kim so insecure that she can't even think the truth because she doesn't trust us?" I think that may be her very problem. It's sad though, really. She can't even feel comfortable with strangers who are thousands of miles away, let alone with her own mind. But in a way she was smart to put up the barrier that she did - we dissected her in class just as much as she probably feared we would. It would be interesting to get to look inside her head if she could have heard us talking about her...
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