Swing by Audrey Meeker has a lot of heart, tackling important topics like friendship, individuality, and challenging societal norms, especially around gender roles. The illustrations are charming, and the graphic novel format adds a fun, visual element that will likely resonate with its middle-grade audience.

Marcus and Izzy’s dynamic is the highlight of the story. Marcus, trying to fit in, contrasts well with Izzy, who embraces her uniqueness. Their journey of working together, especially with the twist of Izzy wanting to take the lead in their swing routine, feels fresh and encourages readers to think about expectations and stereotypes.

That said, the story sometimes felt rushed, particularly in the development of their friendship. While the concept is strong, I found myself wanting more depth in how their relationship evolved from reluctant partners to something more meaningful. Additionally, some of the secondary characters, like Ted, could have been fleshed out more to add layers to Marcus’ inner conflict.

Overall, Swing is a solid debut with a creative premise, though it could benefit from more character development and pacing. It’s a light and enjoyable read, especially for young readers interested in themes of self-expression and standing out.

Marcus wants to fit in so much that he’s still playing soccer and hanging out with his friend Ted, despite not liking either very much. Izzy wants to be a designer some day and takes pride in demonstrating her own style, but that means that she stands out, and not always in a good way. When Marcus and Izzy are paired up for a dance project in gym class, it is a disaster, so they have to perform in the school talent show as extra credit to save their grades and avoid taking gym all over again.
I had a hard time buying into this book because some of the plot points were so heavy handed, like a major gym project, the school talent show, and the rivalry soccer game all taking place in the first month of school, not to mention a make-or-break class project based on students teaching themselves how to dance. Also, some of the main characters were caricatures, like the bully Ted or the spineless Marcus, lacking nuance to make them truly compelling characters. Despite my complaints, it is a sweet story with a good message, and I expect students who are experiencing slightly more realistic versions of this story will enjoy it.

* reviewed from uncorrected eARC via netgalley

children's middlegrade graphic novel (ages 9-12 suggested by publisher) - 8th graders Marcus McCalister (who is definitey not as excited about soccer as his mom seems to be) and Izzy Briggs (not excited about taking the AP courses her mom wants her to sign up for, but excels in English and sewing/designing clothes) become reluctant dance partners for PE (despised by both kids).

Aw, this was so cute! It's not an easy path to friendship, but one that they can both be glad for at the end. It was sweet to be able to see kids be happy being themselves, even if other kids made fun of their bending gender norms. 😭🧡 💛 💚 💙

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this book!

This is such a cute graphic novel. I originally picked it up because it was about dancing and I used to dance. This graphic novel is so great because it shows that boys can dance and have fun too, not just girls. And it’s ok not to want to play sports. I really think that this graphic novel shows a good message for all young people.
There are also some other heavier topics at hand. The girl main characters mom is controlling of her daughter’s free time. The boy main character is feeling like he has to play soccer and be like his varsity star older brother, and deal with his annoying friend.
In the end, the true message is just be yourself and you will find happiness. Being yourself is more fun than being what others want you to be.

High school life kind of story that has bullying, being pressured to do or say stuff you don't mean. Doing something you don't enjoy because of pressure not only with your family but friends. This book covers a lot of things that teenagers can deal with while they are in high school. The story does have a happy ending where our main character grows as a person.

A wonderful message about being try to who you are. I enjoyed watching the story unfold and the main characters stand up for their interests. Students would enjoy this read and may find it relatable due to the bullying the characters experience. But their resilience and the support of friends encourages readers to do the same.

Marcus and Izzy are paired together for a talent show they both do not want to do. This unlikely duo immediately captured my heart. I enjoyed them both so much and they both had wonderful character development. Happy to read such a happy positive book with a strong ending. Looking forward to more from this team!

The title and cover of the book were a big attraction for me to request this book. While reading this graphic novel, I was not sure what direction the book was going. This book is a good book for anyone from 3rd grade to high school. Conflict is tough, and sometimes people young and old are put in the middle of situations. That is when they get hurt, because they don't want to lie, but yet they feel things won't work out if they tell the truth, because they have been in this position previously. The boy in the story was put in a tough position because he was failing a class and then he go along with someone who was "not popular." In the end he had to dress like a girl and gained a friend and found who he can be.
This graphic novel was easy to read, and understand and the illustrations were wonderful.
I will not only recommend this book for my students to read, but the school library purchase, and I will use with students---since this book can cover so many age groups.

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I enjoyed this graphic novel a lot more than I thought I was going to! I feel like recently I’ve read a bunch of graphic novels - specially middle grade - that attempt to tackle a lot of different important issues but end up falling flat or pivoting to focus more on one of those issues while forgetting the rest. To be honest, I did expect the same thing to happen here. But I was pleasantly surprised by how well all the commentary was handled without sacrificing pacing or general story vibes,

Swing is a wonderfully illustrated graphic novel about two kids finding their own paths amidst heavy expectations and peer pressure. I would recommend this not only to middle grade readers but also to a wider audience of adults like myself. 4.5/5 Stars

It should be Marcus's year. He's in eighth grade, meaning one more year till high school. But he isn't enthusiastic for soccer while his big brother is a star player, and his so-called best friend is bullying him into being the best player possible. Marcus wants to drift away from Ted and be his own person, but he's too scared to speak.

Meanwhile, Izzy Briggs can see it's a new school year. She's embraced being a weirdo and staying on top of her grades. But she also wants to sew and do theater crew.

Gym class brings a challenge- dancing with a partner. An attempt to do swing with Izzy Briggs, his chosen partner, leads to them both wiping out and coming close to failing gym. The teacher says they can pass-- if they redo the dance at the talent show for extra credit. Izzy is enthusiastic, Marcus less so. They don't like each other, but they need the grade. But then Ted finds out, and doesn't care that it's a matter of failing gym. He only sees that Marcus is not playing soccer.

This was a fun story, I do feel the ending was a little abrupt, given we don't see Ted's comeuppance, only that he's in big trouble with his family for what he does during the story. Ted sucks and I hope offscreen he gets the riot act. But Marcus learns to stand up for himself and Izzy at the right time, and to say what he wants, rather than going with the flow.

Inconsistent (spineless even?) character, shallow plot, no character arc. I liked the artwork, but the story is simply lacking. It was hard to even like the main character. 2.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My daughter loved this graphic novel! She could not get enough of this story. This will be an amazing book for kids to read.

I got an ARC of this book.

I enjoyed this for the most part. It was a pretty typical middle grade book, my issue is I think the original plan was to have the book set in high school. Izzy’s introduction is her mother badgering her to take AP classes. AP classes are high school classes (they provide college credit under certain circumstances), so why would the 8th grader be taking them? There was a lot of pressure on the kids on their sports/clubs. Full ride scholarships are rare (around 1% of sports scholarships), so offering them to non-seniors seems incredibly weird. So having the older siblings be not-seniors and already have full ride schoalrships. Little details like this kept popping up and taking me out of the story. They may not be as noticable for a middle grade audience. They were also my biggest issues with the story, so that may well work out well for the target audience!

I like that the bullying was multifaceted and addressed. The bully didn’t just rely on taunts. He used photos, he tried to turn people against them, he was physical. It showed that bullying happens in many ways and they are all wrong. Having Izzy verbalize that she was still afraid to dress how she wanted was a great addition to the bullying arc. It allowed for long term impacts of bullying to be seen on page. It gave Izzy some depth. It shows that bullying can make you lose your friends, because people don’t want to be targets. It can do so much. The bullying was never just “thats just how he was”, well it was, but that was addressed too. The MMC doens’t like the bully, but puts up with him and tries to dismiss what is happening. He falls right into being a wingman and hamring the FMC. It was interesting to watch Izzy put Marcus in his place and stand up for herself. It was amazing to see Izzy’s (new) friend do the same. It showed that standing up to bullies can be done. I am a bit disappointed that the book ended where it did. It didn’t really show any consequences or fall out for the characters. It ends immediately after there is an escalation of the situation. Happy ending, but I wanted just a few more pages to show if the bully also escalated or if he calmed down.

Overall, the story was really cute. I liked that there was complexity with the characters. There was this allowanced for multiple kinds of stress and the kids to lash out, but not have the lashing out be encouraged. Instead they all sort of grew.

In Swing Marcus comes from a soccer loving family and is expected to fill the shoes of his super star brother... but he doesn't really care for soccer himself. Izzy is the weird girl that gets bullied for her fashion choices who just wants to do costumes for the drama department. They get paired together in gym class and are expected to perform a swing dance. When they can't seem to get along for the dance they find that the only chance to bring their grade up is to perform their dance for the talent show.

The artwork for Swing was well done, the characters were differentiated and the colors were nice. Facial expressions and motion lines did a good job of conveying the feelings and actions. The story was okay. I didn't feel like the story flowed as well as it should have and I don't know how well I really connected with either of the characters. Some of the elements were needed to move the story forward, but I felt could have been portrayed differently. I also feel like Marcus' complete turn around on how he was feeling with the dancing may not have been believable.

With that being said, I do think that Swing will do well with the target audience, so I still plan on buying it for our library.

A very cute and straightforward middle grade graphic novel about bring your true self and not letting the opinions of others influence you. There's isn't anything groundbreaking in this book but the art is terrific and the story has a good message.

A contemporary story about two eighth graders with very different temperments who are forced to work together on a dance project. Marcus is defined mainly by what he doesn't like. He doesn't enjoy playing soccer anymore, even though he's good at it, and he doesn't enjoy spending time with his "friend," Ted. For kids going through middle school, having a character who is mostly coasting through life and tolerating things they don't enjoy, Marcus is realistically portrayed. However, it creates more work to make him an interesting character. Meanwhile, Izzy is the more identifiable and dynamic protagonist. A girl with pink hair and punk/alt-rock influenced clothes, who wants to be a costume designer and has a visible nervous tick of pulling at her wrist bands when she's nervous.

The two are paired up for a P.E. project where they are expected to practice a style of dance. Since neither of them have any friends willing to partner with them, they're stuck together learning swing. The swing dance sections seem fun, although the focus is less on embracing this new activity and more dealing with the personality issues of their partner. It feels like a lot of rom-coms, where misunderstandings and clumsy introductions sour each other's first impression. In some ways the conflicts feel almost too much, where their mutual awkwardness could have sufficed to make their partnership difficult. Another extreme conflict catalyst is the inclusion of Ted, who is not just an old friend Marcus grew apart from, but an active bully who harasses Izzy and stalks Marcus to blackmail him into focusing on soccer.

While some of the plot progresses with a heavier hand, the slow development of Izzy and Marcus into reluctant friends is the strongest part of the book. There is no loud confession or emotional revelation, they just realize after the initial bickering that they have learned to get along. There is a real charm to the exchange "you doing alright?" "shut up" while they practice holding onto each other that perfectly moves their relationship from one of arguments to friendly banter. The blushing does suggest there may be an element to their relationship that's partially a crush, which is neither confirmed or denied in the story. It's nice to have that ambiguity, although the teasing that of course a boy and girl would have to be interested in each other romantically to spend time together is part of why they are mocked by Ted and his crew.

Some worldbuilding storytelling elements aren't as strong, such as the P.E. coach giving a giant chunk of their grade to something that only takes a week's preparation. Or how a photo of Marcus doing swing dancing at Izzy's house would be used for his soccer coach to cut him from the team for "being distracted." This also includes how his soccer team decides to punish Marcus by fouling him repeatedly, but the coach neither notices nor comments on it. But overall these are minor issues that you can see are left in the story in order to facilitate Marcus and Izzy coming together.

"Swing" is a solid contemporary graphic novel that focuses on interpersonal relationships, a good addition to collections where socialization meets extracurricular activities such as "Freestyle" by Gale Galligan or "The Tryout" by Christina Soontornvat.

A beautiful middle-grade graphic novel with absolutely fabulous artwork!
A relatable read for younger readers who have to navigate school, friendships, un-friendships, parents, teachers, fitting in, and not-too-nice people daily – basically, anyone school-aged who goes to school.

This is such a cute story!! Not only is the art amazing, but I also liked how the two characters slowly developed their friendship, and the way it all ended.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review this book before publication.

This is an incredibly adorable story. From the art style to the characters to the predicament they find themselves in and to the main event itself.

Ted was absolutely dreadful though. Prepare yourself for that fool. But he helped the main character change, so I guess he had a purpose beyond getting on my nerves.

I like the age group of middle schoolers, because middle school is as awful as Ted is. I want to wrap Marcus and Izzy up in hugs.

I can wait for the author’s next book!

Marcus wants to fit in, so much so that he's still playing soccer with his childhood friend, Ted, even though he doesn't like it. Marcus is put under pressure in following the footsteps of their older brothers. Meanwhile, there's Izzy who wants to stand out. Izzy is labeled the "weird" because of her fashion. She finds her place in theatre, but she's also under pressure from her mom to do well in academics.

Marcus and Izzy are paired up for a gym project, they become unlikely friends. A good coming-of-age story that will make the reader reminisce their middle school days. It sure did brought memories back when I had to take dance in PE! Lol