Bibliography: Calame, Don. April, 2009. Swim the Fly. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press. ISBN:978-0763641573
Plot Summary: 15 year old Matt and his two best friends are excited about this summer. Every year they set a new goal to reach, and this year its a doozy–to see a real-live naked girl even though none of them have ever even asked a girl out. Movies don’t count and neither does seeing your sister in the bathroom. But that’s a piece of cake when compared with swimming the 100 fly, another challenge Matt sets for himself to impress the new girl on the swim team. Along the way, he’ll see a dead man, what he looks like dressed as a girl, get caught spying at a party and more, all of it funny and raunchy and at times even poignant.
Critical Analysis: This is a real boy book. Some librarians, teachers and parents out there are going to be turned off by the crude raunchiness of it, although I think raunchy might be too strong a word. There is much talk of bodily functions, and wanting to see girls naked and several truly funny scenes that involve laxatives, kittens wrapped in Christmas paper, and sneaking into the snobby country club to swim in their pool and too many more to list here. And yet, there is more there there. These three boys are real friends who will do anything for one another. Matt lives with his mother, brother and grandfather, and their family may be somewhat different, but they love each other, they eat together, they go to funerals together. Matt wants to see a girl naked because he’s fifteen and he made a pact with his friends. But he also wants a girl to like him for who he is, even as he is trying to change to impress one.
For these reasons, this is a book I think girls and moms and dads and just about anyone will realize that they enjoy. And everyone will love that Matt discovers much about himself, his family, his friends, and girls, naked or not, over the course of the summer he decides to swim the fly.
Readalikes:
Sleeping Freshman Never Lie by David Lubar. Not quite as raunchy, but just as funny and just as perfect picture of an adolescent male.
Kissing Vanessa by Simon Cheshire. Kevin falls hard for the new girl, and he’ll do anything to get her to notice him, even the crazy schemes suggested by his friend Jack.