Tools
Swim the Fly 
by Don Calame
Don Calame tells you "what THEY don't want you to know" about his book. Share "valuable life lessons" with your booktalk audience (for example: mixing Clamatto and chocolate milk is a bad idea) in this book trailer.
Swim the Fly
by Don Calame
Good friends Matt, Coop and Sean always set themselves a goal each summer. They have never failed to reach their goal. This year, their agreed-upon goal is to see a real, live naked girl/woman before the end of the summer. This does not go as smoothly as they had expected, and you might wonder how powerful laxatives, cross-dressing, projectile vomiting, and learning to swim the 100-yard butterfly race from a sadistic German swim instructor to impress the new girl on the swim team might relate to this goal. Wonder no more! By the time you are done snorting snot out of your nose from laughing without warning, absorbing all of Coop's crass yet hilarious metaphors and talk--Finally, the guys hit their goal. It's not, however, like anything they wanted: They would give their whole allowance to burn it out of their mind. Don Calame was a screenwriter who worked on various Disney films, so he knows how to create scenes where the dialogue is realistic, clever and crackling with life. While this rapid-fire book is spewing gross-outs, you will also find the sweet center with the three boys who share a true friendship. Find a place where you have privacy, so you don't get buried with ugly looks from people wondering why you keep complaining your stomach hurts from laughing so hard. Swim the Fly also has a sequel with a new goal for the three friends!
(Booktalk by Michael Fleming, Pacific Cascade Middle School Library)
Last Updated:
April 9, 2012
