By: Audrey Wang

When you think about water, what comes to mind might range widely. It could be anything from fear to fun, from family to freedom. Humanity has been playing with water for quite a long time, starting in 2500 BCE. Today, three books portray water as hope, a place of possibility.

In ‘Swimmers’ by Maria Jose Ferrada, fish dream about being Olympic swimmers, while Olympic swimmers dream that they are fish. The book, illustrated by Mariana Alcantara, and translated by Kit Maude, is shapeless in terms of contradictions and contains fragments of poetry throughout. Rules clearly do not apply to this book – fish in swimsuits and swimmers with fins. The authors use fluid interplay between words and the charcoal, collage, and fluorescent ink illustrations to show the reader how a page can be a deep, blue sea or an Olympic swimming pool.

“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 sea was the sea, and it always will be.”

The second book that defines swimming in a whole new way is ‘The Summer of Diving’ by Sara Stridsberg, illustrated by Sara Lundberg, and translated by B.J. Woodstein. The main character of the book is Zoe, who sits with her mother at the breakfast table in the opening of the book. But then, Zoe’s father suddenly goes missing. Later in the book, it is revealed that Zoe’s father is suffering from severe depression, and Zoe and her mother go to visit him at the hospital.

“A long time passes before I find out where he’s gone. Maybe everyone else has known all along”

Later in the story, Zoe is approached by a woman named Sabina, who wears a red swimsuit under a blue bathrobe, who asks Zoe “Shall we swim?” Soon, the two become friends, and Sabina visits Zoe, even when her father does not. Even with to pool or sea or any body of water to swim in, Sabina and Zoe practice diving from a park bench and ‘swim’ in the grass.

Sabina’s illness is not yet revealed, but Zoe watches her disappear from her life and come back. “She dives into another world. I wait until she comes back.”

The third book, a graphic novel, is about a Black girl named Bree who has a fear of water. ‘Swim Team,’ by Johnnie Christmas, is about how Bree is still trying to get used to her new Florida lifestyle after her family moved from New York. A change of schools, and her super-attentive single dad’s new time-consuming job have put pressure on Bree, and when she finds out the only elective still open at school is swimming, she must overcome her fear of water.

But Bree is not alone.

Etta, who is both a former swim champion and Bree’s upstairs neighbor, saves Bree from nearly drowning the apartment’s pool. Soon, Etta starts teaching Bree how to swim, but there is more symbolism than that. Swimming, in American history, was for white peoples only – pools and beaches were limited to ‘Whites Only.’ But ‘Swim Team’ shows that a Black swimmer can do just as well as a white swimmer can. Johnnie Christmas incorporates these rich details into Etta, inspiring and motivating Bree.

Yes, swimming can be a fear to some. Yes, it can be pure freedom to others. No matter if you do or do not enjoy this sport, you can read these books either way.