★★★★★ 5
Can Bree lead her team to victory?
Format: Hardcover
Swim Team by Johnnie Christmas is a graphic novel that follows Bree, a city kid from New York who moves to Florida due to her dad's new job. Excited to join math puzzles on her first day at her new school, Bree instead finds herself being assigned to swim 101, but there is just one problem: Bree can't swim. Faced with potentially failing the class, Bree's elderly neighbor Etta, who was once a swim team captain, offers to teach her. With Etta’s training and a lot of hard work, Bree suddenly finds herself on the school's failing swim team. With her school considering selling the land the pool resides on, Bree is determined to lead her team to victory at the state championship and save the pool.
This book touches on topics such as anxiety, racism, family dynamics, sports, and friendship. I found the honest exploration provided a powerful lesson of how our circumstances shape us but don't control us. As a former swim team captain myself, I really resonated with this book: I felt it perfectly captured the swim team dynamic, and the high-action illustrations of swim team meets were breath-taking. Personally, I found this book to be wonderfully nostalgic; I could almost smell the chlorine and feel the diving block beneath my feet as I read it. Overall, I think Swim Team would be a major hit in elementary and middle school libraries.
@TheHeterogeneousReader
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Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2024
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