Swim the Fly
By Don Calame
A Book Review by
Charlie Gilbert
This story
is a fictional novel which made me laugh right up to the end. It is a story
about a teenage boy named Matt Gratton and his friends Coop and Sean. What
happens is every year they set themselves a goal and this year’s goal is to see
a live naked girl.
In their
swim squad is a new girl named Kelly who Matt is keen to impress, so when the
swim coach asks for volunteers to swim 4 lengths Butterfly Matt decides to put
up his hand.
Matt lives
with his family which includes a crazy Grandad with a goatee who is trying to
pick up the widow lady down the road!
His plan includes getting Matt to help him.
Matt and his
friends try all sorts of schemes to achieve their goal of seeing a girl while Matt
tries to train in private ready for the big race. He even takes some protein powder from his
Mum which turn out to be laxatives.
They heard that a girl they want to see naked
is going to a community centre so they dress up like girls. In the changing
room he sees Matt sees Kelly and quickly runs into a toilet stall and this is
when the laxatives decide to come out!!
His named underpants end up blocking the girl’s toilets and cause a
major flood!
Kelly’s best
friend Valerie is kind and Matt enjoys her company and likes to ask her lots of
questions about Kelly.
There are
many funny moments in this story including a party and Matt nearly having his
appendix removed.
The ending
is a real happy one for Matt, his friends and the girls.
I think the
author was saying to never be afraid to step up to challenges in your life and
that sometimes the best things have been right in front of you the whole time.
This novel
was easy to read with small chapters and hard to put down. It made me laugh out loud as I read it. I enjoyed reading about the challenges of
swimming and hard work.
I would
recommend this book to anyone who likes to laugh, people who enjoy stories
about teenage life and to those who enjoy swimming. It contains some rude words but I think it
seems appropriate for this story.