The buoyant, celebratory middle-grade graphic novel Raise the Bar by Fernanda Frick H. features a young, self-taught Chilean weightlifter who earns the chance to train under her Olympian idol.
Sam "didn't choose to be strong... at first." When she was a small child, she saw Brazilian lifter Eva Dos Santos become the first Latin American woman to win a gold medal for lifting, and it lit a fire inside of her. Now, Sam learns to weightlift by watching videos and using the limited equipment available to her at the Santiago Municipal Gym. When Santos comes to Santiago seeking recruits, Sam impresses the Olympian with her grit: "Someone like you... shouldn't have been able to lift that weight." Sam travels to Corazón where she almost immediately becomes rivals with Santos's other recruit, National USA Champion Barb Miller, whose weightlifting journey has been comparatively charmed in the form of sponsorships and fancy equipment. As the girls agitate each other, trying to "become champions by sacrificing everything they got and more," Sam pushes herself--and her body--too far. But Sam is determined to win the gold.
Frick H.'s background as an animator can be seen in every expressive character, flash of exuberant movement, and feat of incredible strength; she uses speed lines to embellish the motion with anime-inspired flair and diagrams to cheerfully break down the components of competitive weightlifting for the uninitiated. Colorist Lauren "Perry" Wheeler uses color washes to create emotional beats and limited palettes to make figures pop. Raise the Bar should appeal to lovers of sports, anime, and any kid who has been told they dream too big. --Ari Mackoff, bookseller