Librarian Natalie McCall chats with award-winning Canadian author Mariko Tamaki in this episode of 8 Books Remix. In 2015, Tamaki received the Michael L. Printz Award and a Caldecott Honor for her graphic novel This One Summer (two of the three major literary awards for youth awarded by the American Library Association). Her most recent book, Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me, is a sweet, spirited graphic novel about a Bay Area teen whose girlfriend keeps breaking up with her. Tamaki is one of the few graphic novelists with the distinction of writing comic books for both Marvel and DC (about characters from Harley Quinn to She-Hulk to the X-Men).

Natalie and Mariko talk about the book that invented the term “Generation X” back in the day, what it’s like to be a girl in rural Canada, and hitchhiking across the galaxy.

 Mariko’s Eight