Swim Team by Johnnie Christmas. 240 p. HarperAlley/ HarperCollins Publishers, May, 2022. 9780063056763.
Happy Monday! Our students have off for the MLK weekend, but we teachers have PD. Middle Grade Monday features Swim Team by Johnnie Christmas. Middle schooler Bree isn't too upset to move from Brooklyn to Florida with her single-parent dad. He has been offered a better job. She's even looking forward to starting a new school, hoping to get into an interesting math elective. When all the electives she wants are full and the only one that's available is Swim 101, she freaks. Bree has never learned to swim and she's afraid of the water. So she finds ways to cut the class until her father is notified. After a near-drowning incident at her apartment complex, an older neighbor, Etta, agrees to coach Bree. Bree is filled with anxiety and self-doubt and these thoughts appear in blobby gray thought bubbles that crowd the otherwise vibrant and sunny panel art. This graphic novel educates as well as entertains. Readers will root for Bree.
Swim Team is the author/ illustrator's middle grade debut. It was long listed for the National Book Award, was a Kirkus Best Book and also won a Harvey Award. It won't sit long on the shelf. Highly recommended!
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