Swim Team

Swim Team

By Johnnie Christmas

HarperAlley

2022

A splashy, contemporary middle grade graphic novel from bestselling comics creator Johnnie Christmas!

Bree can’t wait for her first day at her new middle school, Enith Brigitha, home to the Mighty Manatees—until she’s stuck with the only elective that fits her schedule, the dreaded Swim 101. The thought of swimming makes Bree more than a little queasy, yet she’s forced to dive headfirst into one of her greatest fears. Lucky for her, Etta, an elderly occupant of her apartment building and former swim team captain, is willing to help.

With Etta’s training and a lot of hard work, Bree suddenly finds her swim-crazed community counting on her to turn the school’s failing team around. But that’s easier said than done, especially when their rival, the prestigious Holyoke Prep, has everything they need to leave the Mighty Manatees in their wake.

Can Bree defy the odds and guide her team to a state championship, or have the Manatees swum their last lap—for good?

Johnnie Christmas

Johnnie Christmas is a #1 New York Times bestselling graphic novelist and the author of Gamerville. His 2022 middle-grade graphic novel debut, Swim Team, earned a spot on the National Book Awards longlist and received a Coretta Scott King Award Illustrator Honor. It also won the BCALA Literary Award, the Black-Eyed Susan Award, the Maud Hart Lovelace Award, and the Yellowhammer Award, with many nominations, including the Eisner and Harvey Awards. He is the writer and co-creator of the sci-fi series Tartarus, and his book Firebug earned a Joe Shuster Outstanding Cartoonist nomination. Additionally, he co-created the series Angel Catbird with celebrated writer Margaret Atwood and adapted William Gibson’s lost screenplay for Alien 3 into a critically acclaimed graphic novel of the same name. A graduate of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, he earned a BFA in Communication Design/Illustration.

A dual citizen of the United States and Canada, Johnnie makes his home in Vancouver, British Columbia.