Swing | Review

Swing
Writer/artist: Audrey Meeker
Feiwel and Friends; $22.99
Publisher’s rating: Ages 9-12

Cartoonist Audrey Meeker’s debut graphic novel Swing stars an unlikely pair who must overcome their personal challenges and become better versions of themselves if they hope to have a chance of meeting their shared goal: A passing grade in gym class.

It’s the first day of eighth grade, and Marcus McCalister is weary of soccer, a sport he only keeps playing because of the constant pressure to do so from his family and his toxic friend and teammate Ted. Theirs is a complicated dynamic, as their older brothers are longtime teammates and soccer stars, and thus Marcus and Ted were practically raised together.

As for Izzy Briggs, she’s branded an outsider for her “wild” fashion choices—which here include purple highlights, a skull t-shirt, fishnet socks, and combat boots—and has been the victim of bullying from Ted.

The pair are thrust together in gym class, in what looks like a real middle-school nightmare. Their teacher has everyone pair up and pick a particular style of dance from a fishbowl, which they have to study and then perform in front of the rest of the class. Marcus and Izzy, the only two without partners, are assigned swing dance, which means they will have to (gulp!) hold hands during their performance, and that the timid, uncoordinated Marcus will have to lead the more confident Izzy.

Things go quite disastrously. Their final performance involves stepping on one another’s feet, Izzy elbowing Marcus in the face, eliciting a nosebleed, and Marcus ultimately dropping her on her butt. Their teacher offers them a way to change their grade: Perform a swing dance in the upcoming school talent show and he’ll pass them; place in the top three, he’ll give them an A.

The kids accept the challenge, and pursue it mostly in secret, but this presents them with other challenges, of which Izzy deciding to take the lead might only be the least of. (This is a difficult aspect for them that Meeker perfectly captures on the cover, with their bodies technically doing what they are supposed to but their faces revealing how exactly they feel about it.)

Ted doesn’t like Marcus focusing on anything other than soccer, especially if it involves Izzy, and he sets about sabotaging them, not only with his usual passive-aggressive bullying of Marcus and his aggressive-aggressive bullying of Izzy, but also by surreptitiously taking and sharing embarrassing photos.

And Izzy’s mom doesn’t like her focusing on anything other than academics, even if it might seem related, like her work with the theater club, where she finally makes a new friend (and who, incidentally, are putting on the talent show).

While the pair continue to practice together, they gradually grow closer, starting to become real, actual friends, but that closeness eventually sets off Ted and leads to a climactic sundering of their partnership.

Will Marcus find the courage to finally stand up to Ted and the rest of the world, and do what he wants to do for a change? How much does he really like Izzy, enough to let her dress him for the performance, even if it involves wearing make-up and, when the too-tight pants she designed for him rip, a skirt?

There isn’t much in the way of surprises in how things turn out, including an impulsive Hollywood-style, last-minute rush from the soccer field to the school stage by Marcus, but that predictability is, of course, a big part of what makes the resolution so satisfying: Meeker’s drama ends exactly how we want it to.

Her art is very simple in design and rendering, with the look and feel of the sort of art a student might doodle in their notebook while not paying attention in class or an aspiring artist might fill their sketchbook with, but that simplicity belies Meeker’s strong storytelling chops and the superior “acting” of her characters.

Though there’s not really anything in the way of romance here—the kids are a little young for intense feelings yet and still seem to be processing the idea of being friends with members of the opposite sex—the book has the basic structure of a romantic comedy, complete with an element of will they/won’t they (here, be friends) and plenty of jokes and light moments amongst the drama.

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