By: Phoebe Shi

Three books that have recently came out show swimming as an expansive and creative way to interact with water. Two are picture books, and one is a graphic novel.

Swimmers is one of the picture books. It was beautifully illustrated by Mariana Alcántara, and written by María José Ferrada. The story is about Olympic swimmers fantasizing about being fish, and fish fantasizing about being Olympic swimmers. Instead of writing the story in regular prose, Ferrada tells it through fragments of poetry.

Both the art style and poetry in the book are loose and creative. They send a message that water is a place of possibilities and experimentation.

The second picture book, The Summer of Diving, was written by Sara Stridsberg, a renowed Swedish playwright. It was illustrated by Sara Lundberg, winner of the August Prize and the Swedish Book Award.

The book tells the story of a girl named Zoe, who’s father suddenly goes missing. The story is rendered in saturated, vibrant art. Zoe and her mother go to the hospital, where we find out that Zoe’s father is suffering from severe depression.

Zoe meets a woman named Sabina in the hospital. She wears a bright red swimsuit and asks Zoe to swim around the world with her. Zoe is doubtful, but she accepts. They spin a globe and delve deep into their imaginations. The book shows mental illness from a child’s-eye view through its depiction of Zoe’s father’s depression and Sabina’s “disappearances” into her own thoughts.

The last book, a middle grade graphic-novel titled Swim Team, was created by Johnnie Christmas. He is best known for making an Alien 3 graphic novel adaption and the Angel Catbird series with Margaret Atwood.

The book follows Bree, a girl who has just moved from New York to Florida. She was raised by an attentive single father who is now seemingly more focused on his new job than on her. At her new school, Bree finds out the only elective still open is Swim 101. She has to get over her fear of water.

Bree’s elderly new neighbor, Etta, is a former swim champion. She rescues Bree from almost drowning in their apartment complex’s pool and teaches her how to swim. Etta inspires Bree with her past as a Black swimmer.

Bree’s new school is named after Enith Brigitha, the first Black woman to win an Olympic medal in swimming. The Manatees, the school swim team, is facing a snobbish rival school’s swim team, and the threatened closing of their pool.

Christmas wrote this book from experience, as he, too, survived a near-drowning when he was younger. He handles topics of belonging and racial justice with thought and nuance.

Swimmers, The Summer of Diving, and Swim Team are all beautifully illustrated and written books that treat swimming as something almost ethereal, and help young readers see swimming in a new light.