By: Sunnie Gao

Two new picture books and a graphic novel show swimming as an expansive state of being slippery with promise. They attract young readers to interact with the world in different ways.

The idea for the first book, “Swimmers,” came from the charcoal, collage, and fluorescent ink artwork by Mariana Alcá. María José Ferrada then added poetic fragments about a beautiful story of fish dreaming to become Olympic swimmers and vice versa.

The story is abstract but supports the idea that water is full of play and possibility. We see a clock half-submerged in a fishbowl, fish in swimsuits, and swimmers with fins, indicating a fluid interplay between worlds and adding to the abstract nature of the story.

“The fish all wake up at the same time, just when they’ve finished the 150-meter race. Even though it’s never a dream they want to wake up from, they aren’t sad. … It’s a dream that has been dreamed by fish since the world was the world and the sea was the sea, and it always will be.”

In the second book, “The Summer of Diving”, imagination and innovation are essential themes. The book starts with Zoe and her mother at the breakfast table. One morning, Zoe’s father goes inexplicably missing. After a while, the truth is revealed when mother and daughter arrive at a hospital to visit Zoe’s father, who is suffering from severe depression.

Zoe is confused over the locked doors, the “angels” who are watching over her father, and the sadness that is keeping him down. Then, an interesting woman named Sabrina appears, wearing a red swimsuit under a blue bathrobe. “Shall we swim?” she asks Zoe.

Days turn into seasons, and Zoe and her new friend, Sabrina, swim – not in the pool or sea, but in the grass, practicing strokes and diving off park benches.

“When my dad finally comes, Sabina and I have swum around the world a few times,” Zoe tells us. “My dad is like the trees. In the winter, he pretends to be dead. Then he is reborn in the summer.” Stridsberg’s child’s-eye perspective of mental illness shows how young people explain gaps in knowledge, their openness to form unlikely friendships, the vulnerability at a fragile age, and what memories survive into adulthood.

The third and final book, “Swim Team”, is about a girl named Bree, who just moved from New York to Florida. She finds out the only elective still open is Swim 101. Well, it turns out that Bree can’t swim, and when Etta, Bree’s elderly neighbor, and a former swim champion saves her from almost drowning in their apartment’s pool, she teaches her how to swim.

And that’s how the Enith Brigitha Manatees form. Bree’s new school is named after the first Black woman to win an Olympic medal in swimming, and its swim team is the underdog battling a threatened pool closure and a snooty rival school’s team. Characters are drawn with warmth and personality — even the villains contain multitudes.

These three books all contain amazing artwork, stories, and most importantly, connect readers to the world of swimming in vastly different ways.