Synchro Boy

November 1, 2018

Gr 10 Up-Sixteen-year-old swimmer Bart Lively is not sure where his dreams will take him-does he want to stick with racing or pursue synchronized swimming? Bart's father wants him to stay in racing, even though he has not played a part in his life. Bart is also trying to figure out his sexuality and sense of identity as he develops feelings for his long-time swimming partner, Erika. His attraction to another diver, Dave, are also evident. This novel has a strong, fully developed male protagonist. Teens who are struggling with their sense of identity and family issues will relate to the burgeoning romances and the drawn-out emotional conflict between Bart and his father. The secondary characters are less fleshed out than Bart and Erika, but young people will still want to pick up the book. VERDICT An excellent addition to YA shelves. Purchase where Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg is popular.-Amy Lukich, Tinley Park Public Library, IL

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2018
After Bart, a dancer-turned-competitive swimmer, impulsively joins his Victoria, British Columbia, high school's all-female synchronized swim team, he finds himself challenging heteronormative expectations both in and out of school.Even Bart's reasons for joining synchro--to prove to his former swim coach and homophobic teammates that he's 100 percent boy and to get closer to Erika, his half-Japanese/half-white duet partner--reflect his awareness of, and susceptibility to, social expectations for young men. Yet, even as he falls for Erika, he falls in love with the sport itself, quickly joining the push to include coed synchro duets in high-level competitions (including, hopefully, the Olympics). Through Bart's conversational style of narration, McFerran (Girls' Diary Project, 2014) interrogates toxic masculinity and challenges social expectations for all teens. This is evident both in Bart's comparison of synchro training to his old swim practices, in which he acknowledges the complex technical skill required for synchro, and in his exploration of the attraction he feels to both Erika and Dave, a boy on the diving team. Though he faces homophobic verbal attacks both at school and at meets, Bart, who is white, is supported by Julia, a gay black teammate. Bart's eventual acceptance that he is bisexual gives him the confidence to lean into synchro while easing off on the need to validate his own masculinity through sporting achievements.A nuanced, compassionate exploration of male sexuality and identity. (Fiction. 12-18)

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 1, 2018
Grades 9-12 When 16-year-old Bart quits his high school's swim team to become, instead, the only boy on the synchronized swim team, he creates quite a stir, along with allegations that he's gay. Because synchro swimming is a girl's sport, right? Nevertheless, he is quickly smitten by Erika, his teammate and swim partner. She returns his affection, and they begin a relationship. But then Bart meets handsome diver Dave, and, feeling an instant attraction, the two boys make out. But Bart's straight, right? To complicate matters further, the team's top swimmer, the aloof Chelsea, begins flirting with him, and he, in a moment of supreme stupidity, kisses her and is caught in the act by Erika, who, understandably furious, ends their relationship and their swim partnership. In this Canadian import, McFerran does a nice?though slightly didactic?job of dealing with gender stereotypes and the fluidity of sexual identity, while introducing readers to a not terribly well-known sport. Come on in, readers; the water's fine.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)