Swim Team: A Graphic Novel – A Coretta Scott King Honor Winner About Friendship and Competition

I’ve been trying so hard to get my 10 year old daughter with Dyslexia to enjoy reading. I bought this book hoping it would reel her in since she recently joined a swim team. It absolutely did. She loved it and now wants to read more. As an avid reader myself I am so so happy that she has finally read something she enjoyed and didn’t have to be forced to read. Thank you!!

Ordered this book for our Summer reading program and it was awesome and very relatable to the kids! Awesome job! Trust me, you won't be disappointed! The kids LOVED the storyline and the graphics so much and wanted to continue to read it when time was up after each program, which is a good thing! Here is a photo we took in our last day!

It is a good read and kid a br appropriate I love it it’s just so good i love it 🥰.

The art and the story is amazing! As a swimmer, I can relate to many of the successes and struggles the characters face throughout the book. Thank you for illustrating and writing this book, and I hope it inspires many readers to swim!

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

I love to swim and this book was fantastic! Hope you have fun reading it to. My favorite character was Bree by the way

My 10-14 year olds loved this book. It’s a great story. They also really liked the Raina Telgemeir books.

A decent read, it wrestles a bit with a couple of different topics of anxiety, racism, family dynamics, sports, and friendship in fits and bursts. I guess my main critique was it felt a bit shallow (no pun intended) with most issues resolved rather quickly and easily once characters put their minds to it. The Hollyhoke's team also seemed to be pretty toxic making it a wonder why someone would want to go there other than that it's wealthy.

Bien, un libro sin más

Great read for kids.

A história é um pouco fraca, mas a mensagem é linda 🌸 o preço vale a pena. Compraria denovo, obrigada

Very interesting

it was a good story for what it was worth. doesnt talk down to its audience, has a good message about friendship and overcoming obstacles, art is all right, and the pacing was good. i also liked it how they touched upon racial issues and handled it in a mature way. although the way they brought it up felt a bit forced at first, but it did play into the story later on so i can forgive it. some of the conflicts seemed a little forced but nothing that ruined the story or anything. i also liked it how they had the main character deal with anxiety issues without having them be a total wet blanket all the time (thats a nice unique spin on an overdone trope) overall id say give it a try if youre into this kind of thing. its something people of all ages can enjoy