The Breakaways

by Cathy G. Johnson

Quiet, sensitive Faith starts middle school already worrying about how she will fit in. To her surprise, Amanda, a popular eighth grader, convinces her to join the school soccer team, the Bloodhounds. Having never played soccer in her life, Faith ends up on the C team, a ragtag group that’s way better at drama than at teamwork. Although they are awful at soccer, Faith and her teammates soon form a bond both on and off the soccer field that challenges their notions of loyalty, identity, friendship, and unity. The Breakaways from Cathy G. Johnson is a raw, and beautifully honest graphic novel that looks into the lives of a diverse and defiantly independent group of kids learning to make room for themselves in the world.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Middle Grade, LGBT, Sports, Comics, Realistic Fiction, Fiction

224 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 5, 2019

About the author

My name is Cathy G. Johnson. I'm an artist in Providence, Rhode Island, where I make comics, drawings, prints and books about youth, confrontation and sincerity. I draw inspiration from my life and my community.

My first graphic novel, Jeremiah, debuted in 2013, and was published by One Percent Press in 2015. My second book Gorgeous was published by Koyama Press in 2016. My upcoming book The Breakaways is coming from First Second 2019.

In addition to my artwork, I am also an educator and scholar. I have been teaching various art classes and workshops throughout New England and North America. I have been teaching since 2012, and earned my masters degree in Teaching + Learning in Art + Design from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2017. I share my experience and research on my education website, ComicArtEd.com. I also co-host a scholarship podcast where we talk about comics in historical + educational contexts, called Drawing a Dialogue.

Reviews

[destiny ♡ howling libraries · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the cutest middle grade graphic novels ever. It was so fluffy, and had so many heartwarming moments, and an incredibly diverse cast of characters! It follows this young girl, Faith, who's been convinced to join her school's soccer team by a popular girl she wants to impress. The team is broken up into a few cliques, and there are some characters who seem to fit certain stereotypes (like the hot girly girls, or the punk band girls, etc.), but we're given tiny windows into their lives to see what makes them the way they are, or the battles they're quietly fighting (like the glimpse into the "mean girl"'s average morning that showcases loud, emotionally neglectful parents).

On top of how lovely the story line is and how well it reminds the reader to not judge based on appearances and to give everyone a fair chance, it also has so much rep it's incredible. There are characters of all sizes and skin colors (including a few fat girls and a hijabi, 2 reps we don't see much of in GNs!), and there's a ton of queer rep—Faith is questioning, a few girls are openly queer, and one character even comes out as trans during the events unfolding.

The whole book was absolutely precious and lovable, and I know this is one I'll be recommending for a long time to come.

Thank you so much to First Second for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too many characters, none of whom really like being on a soccer team together, each get too few pages to have much of a character arc, especially with way too many pages wasted on a completely pointless recurring fantasy sequence. Nice diversity at least.

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really liked some aspects, but overall it was just kind of all over the place.

[Eva B. · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars
The art was very cute, but that's about it. There was a very diverse cast, but there were so many characters that it's hard to follow them, and we don't get to know them super well. For example, Faith and V are supposed to be so close that Faith breaks down when she finds out that V is moving away, but all we see of their friendship is the two of them having a sleepover. Same with Sammy and Marie, we see just short glimpses of them hanging out, and then in 5 pages Sammy comes out as being a trans boy and they kiss.
It did a good job of subverting tropes, but the ending was underwhelming. The individual characters had too much potential to be trapped in a short graphic novel about soccer.

[Jennifer Hill · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was really excited about the diversity of this book and enjoyed the small glimpses of diversity, but the character development was VERY spotty. I think there was too much shoved into one book. The characters could have focused on one or two, but it was really too many. I felt like it jumped around too much from one person’s story to another and it was hard for me to keep up with who was who. I had to go back and look to figure out what was going on. I know the main character was Faith, but the beginning of the book was like, BAM! No background, nothing, and then Faith came in and out, but the story was too wide to really understand what was going on.

[Renata · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very cute, diverse graphic novel, including a gentle trans coming out story. It reads a bit like an anthology--there are a lot of characters followed, and it doesn't necessarily feel like they all get their due, so I hope this is the start of a series. I think it'll be a good one for fans of Raina et al.

[Aaron Anstett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet graphic novel about a middle-school girls soccer team. Because they can't keep people from being who they are, self-appointed moralists like to ban this one because a character is trans and two characters are "dating." Also, a Black Lives Matter poster appears in one panel. Won't someone please think of the children?

[libreroaming · Rating 1 out of 5]

A very disappointing graphic novel that promised diverse friendship but really just laid out a field and tossed in a bunch of characters thinly to not at all fleshed out. The tagline "Bad at soccer. Okay at friendship" gave you lowered expectations and even then it was disappointing, because their relationships consisted of being stuck together on the C-String team and the interpersonal dynamics were either characters expositing about their bonds or unearned declarations of meaningful connection. It also read out of the age range for the book, with an emphasis on teenager dating (there is a love confession between two characters and first kiss while they are in bed together) that doesn't mesh with a POV main character who is in fifth grade and spends time daydreaming about an unrelated fantasy interlude that takes up precious page time.

Bad at soccer was accurate, because they are not simply bad at it competitively, all the characters seem resentful at being on the team. The supposed moment of true bonding happens when they all decide to quit mid-game because they are losing and Faith says, "None of us likes soccer. Who cares if the team wins? I don't care. I just want you guys to be my friends." Even though she only spoke to 3 of the team beyond "hey" and there was a plot point that a girl she might have been friends with, V, got bullied by the others. And that Faith felt guilty about doing nothing to intervene or support her, except now she randomly wants to be friends with them! Story has to close out so let's abandon a commitment on a whim and call it a victory when you tack a "power of friendship" sign on it. Ugh. It has no appeal for readers who love sports books, and actually seems to be offputting for them. Common sports themes of underdog effort or bonding through shared trials are nonexistent, and the one character who is narratively designated as "the good player who is supposed to help them" is given nothing to do.

I wish this took time to actually make characters. Designating them as diverse through art cues, names with coded ethnic heritages, and self-identifying markers, does not make up for the fact that none of them have fleshed out personalities. It is window dressing. Overall this is a breakaway that would end up with a referee tweeting it offsides for most readers.

[Katie Lawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I loved:
- Great representation and diversity!
- I loved the art style a great deal. Each character was distinct.
- I love that this is a sports book about people who are not very good at it and also are not sure if they want to keep playing the sport. As a former soccer player who did not enjoy it, it makes me happy that there are books that present that feeling as ok. Wanting to belong but not understanding or liking the sport you're playing to belong.
- A great focus on self discovery and building confidence in who you are.

What I struggled with:
- Because there was so much diversity, so many issues and GLBT characters introduced, this book both felt realistic and felt like it only scratched the surface in developing the characters. I was left wanting to know so much more about everyone, even main character Faith. Perhaps if this had been longer we would have gotten to see more deeply into each teammate's life. It just felt like a bit of a missed opportunity to introduce unhappy families, a trans character coming out, busy parents, drug addiction (at least it seemed like that was what V was dealing with), fighting with friends, veganism etc, but not delve too deeply into any of those stories. Again, I loved that the characters were diverse and represented many experiences, to me that seemed so realistic, I just wanted so much more.
- Faith's dreams about Mathilda were very confusing to me. I almost wondered if Faith was dreaming about her mom... or if Mathilda was meant to help Faith cope with her new situation... or maybe that part of the story was just meant to show Faith's drawing ability and escapism during soccer. It wasn't clear to me what the purpose of that aspect of the book was.

[Maia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Faith is a quiet fifth grader, prone to daydreaming and doodling. She is not very sporty, but she is talked into joining the middle-school girl's soccer team and falls into a web of friendships, grudges, crushes, and aspiring punk musicians. The book weaves together scenes of most of the team member's various struggles and experiments as they all try to get through life in the tumultuous junior high years. I wished the story had focused on a slightly smaller cast, as I felt like I only only got a little slip of story about each player, but what I did get I liked.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this might be one of my favorite books of all time.

[Izzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting that this book is considered children’s when it’s about middle school age students but ah well.

Mostly light hearted but also realistic look into being on a sports team (when you’re rly uninterested in the sport). The story also openly explores different genders and sexualities which is C O O L !! And seeing a Black single father care for his daughter is beautiful.

[Raina · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the tagline says, way more about the friendships than the sports.

Great representation of lots of different realistic diversity on one team. Full color, lots of variety in panel layout, the realistic tween GN audience should eat this up. :)

Extra star for trans representation in a Juvenile book, and centering a nonwhite person.

[Pierce Samuel ✞︎ (My Girlfriend's Ver.) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in 6th grade. 6th grade was around the time I started realizing I was NOT that CisHet girl I tried so hard to be. I remember reading this in my bed at like 10PM (I know, VERY rebellious of my 11 year old self 💀) and reading abt Sammie/Sammy (I forgot how it was spelled) coming out. I was very "Woah- THAT WAS A POSSIBILITY?!" and "Woah- Am *I* that possibility!?". I was so conflicted because "What Abt my perfect girl" image but also "I can USE other pronouns than she/her?!? Why was I never told this before?!"

Anyway, Mom, Dad, blame the graphic novel you gave me the money to buy back in 6th grade for me being trans /j

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

goodreads stop crashing while i write my little reviews challenge!! anyways this book was cute. it reminded me of my 7th and 8th grade school volleyball team, which was my 7 person social-pond-scum friend group, and we all sucked so bad, lost every game for two years, and didn’t really like the sport but we had the best time because everything was just fun and goofy and nothing was that deep. pretty sure i got a concussion once bc i got hit in the face so hard with a volleyball i was trying to hit that i actually fell on my ass and then a few minutes later the same thing happened again. obviously i never told my parents. kids from other schools would tell us that we sucked but everyone knew we had the most fun. i almost wish the book were longer bc there were so many characters and we got so little about them all, but on the other hand i liked that you don’t really know that much about the other kids or what’s going on i. their lives (the reader knows more than the characters) bc that’s what life is like. anyways this was cute and quick to read!

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a graphic novel featuring 5th grader Faith.

Faith likes drawing. She is convinced to be on her new school's soccer team. I wanted to read this book because I thought that it was going to be about girls playing soccer. But none of them know how to play. And the coach doesn't really seem to coach them.

There is a lot of diversity which is great. Overall this was a super quick read.

[Lorraine · Rating 2 out of 5]

This graphic novel is about a 3rd rate middle school soccer team. Faith, a 5th grader is recruited to be on the soccer team by Amanda, a popular 8th grader. She agrees to do it because she wants to be friends with Amanda. It turns out that Amanda is on the A Team, the soccer team made up of the best players, while Faith is put on the C team, a team made up of unskilled players, who lose every game.

While the book is primarily told from Faith's point of view, towards the middle of the book, we get to see some stories of the other players. They are a diverse group of misfits with different interests who not only can't play soccer, but they don't enjoy being on the team at all! For me the story jumped back and forth between the various characters and a fantasy story drawn by Faith. I found the story to be choppy - jumping from one character to the next, leaving me confused at times. It took a while for the characters to come together and finally admit that they hate soccer and decide to break away from their team. I also felt that some of the characters were drawn so similarly that I had a hard time figuring out who was who. Several of them were not likeable and I didn't really care what happened to them. I also think that there were too many characters and as a result, none of them were properly developed. In addition, the author tried to cram too much into this story. There was a brief scene towards the end of the book where one girl admits that she is transgender and another scene where a different girl comes out as a lesbian. It seemed like these were just thrown in to keep the book relevant for today's reader. If she had taken the time to flesh out the characters, I think this could have been a really good book.

[Jillian · Rating 1 out of 5]

So my sole reason for giving this book a one star rating is the author did not seem to know what age group she was writing/drawing she for. Honestly I am personally offended. I am all for LGBTQ representation, but the main character in the book is in the 5th grade, but yet the main topic throughout the book is dating and sexuality. It is implied that several characters have intimate relations in the book despite the characters being in middle school. I would say because of the topics it should be a YA novel, but the problem is the writing and the graphics are aimed at a much younger audience. It is all very confusing. On top of my main concern with this book, they are way too many characters, without really knowing any of the characters, they are written rather flatly. The story also jumps around a lot making the story disconnected and choppy. Do not recommend.

[Jessica Fletcher-Fierro · Rating 1 out of 5]

I liked the diversity in this book, but that's the only good thing I have to say about it. I found it hard to follow, and the ending (spoilers) was a let-down. They literally walked off the field mid-game and quit. What?!

I also found Faith's comic within the story to be confusing and odd. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be taking away from it.

Like I said, the diverse characters were wonderful, but I wish I was reading about them in a more well-developed and compelling story.

[Artnoose McMoose · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up from the new books shelf at the library because of the subtitle: Bad at Soccer, Okay at Friends. That was about how I was feeling about my life at the moment.

It ended up being a really great teen/tween book about a middle school soccer team made up of the worst players at school, most of whom don't even actually like playing soccer. Kids start coming to terms with their friendship dynamics, their relationships to the game of soccer, and their sexuality.

[Diana Flores · Rating 2 out of 5]

+1 for diversity, but overall hard to care about the characters since no one is fully developed. A lot of negativity throughout, from other students and adults. Disjointed storyline. Maybe if the coach cared a little? I guess the tag line "Bad at Soccer. Okay at friends. " sets up some low expectations for this book. It barely met that bar.

[Books on Stereo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Far too many characters with little to no payoff.

[Erin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Worst book I've ever read.

[Erica · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nothing interesting happens in this book. There are too many characters to really get invested in anyone. The fantasy stuff made no sense and came out of nowhere. Quite a disappointment.

[Andrea Frazee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book

[Autumn]

I loved the characters, I just wish the book was longer!! Such a great book!

[laila · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I can like this book, because it had so much potential and it was really cute, but I couldn’t. There were too many characters and very few pages going into depth with them. It’ll be like 4 to 5 pages and that’s it. I feel like it would’ve been better if the book was longer, because when I got to the last few pages, I was like, “That’s it?”

For example, this book brings things up out of the blue like with Marie and Sammy, Zoe and Faith and V. With Marie and Sammy and their little sleepover, I’m randomly hit with the “I like you too” from Marie when there’s nowhere in the story that they have chemistry or even together. The book only shown Marie and Sodacan fighting. Then Sammy said that he thinks that he’s trans but like I said there were so little scenes with him that I was just like, “Oh ok that’s cool.”

Faith and Zoe is also another example. They only had two interactions and then in the bathroom, Zoe said, “You’re my only friend, Faith.” And I’m sitting here reading it like, “Y’all friends?” Because the book only showed them together in the classroom and in the library and in the library, they talk and Zoe leaves because she thought Faith was a “weirdo.” I honestly wish that we got more in depth with Zoe too because I like her character design and I wanted to know more about her after that scene where she goes out the house and sits near the water.

And V, another character I wish I knew more about. She’s shown going bonkers, twice, then the sleepover with Faith, and then poof she’s gone just like that. And then they try to make it sad that she moved away and have Faith crying and I’m just sitting there like, “Um, ok that was out of nowhere.”

What I’m trying to say is that it would’ve been a good book if the characters had more pages with them and explained them better.

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book needed to be much, much longer. A lot of the characters didn't have a storyline, and they weren't fleshed out well enough. I forgot their names most of the time, except for Faith, of course, who I wish I had been in the fifth grade. All of the characters seemed to live in a utopia where you're just magically accepted for being LGBT identifying with no backlash and people disappear with no real explanation. Nonetheless, congrats to this book for having good rep and for the awesome drawings. I might just pick this up again in the future.

[Courtenay · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one left me confused with a capital C. If the author had done away with the fantasy sequence and made the drawings a tad clearer -- I was convinced I was looking at a mixed soccer team, not all girls -- it might have had more lasting power with me. Yeah, diversity. Woo hoo. But NEVER to the exclusion of story. But then again, I guess middle school IS a very confusing time, especially if you're trying to figure out what you are all about, who you are. Didn't do anything for me, sorry. 2 stars is being generous.

[Kari · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely a diverse cast of characters here, but it was hard to find a real focus and connection with any of them. The main character kind of stood to the side - we experienced everyone else through her eyes while she remained most distant to the reader. Maybe it's just my adult sensibilities, but I found the story lacked of any sort of cohesive theme or message. I have no idea what these characters "learned" from their shared experience on a crappy soccer team; everyone's attitude seemed pretty negative, and they all just gave up and quit the team anyway. Hooray?