The Cardinals are playing the Blue Jays in this appealing book in which short, rhythmic bursts of text capture the energy of a girls' basketball game. Referee hands the ball to Lynn. / Dribble . . . dribble . . . dribble . . . / Janet passes off to Kim, / outside shot goes off the rim. The fast-paced action moves back and forth between the hardworking teams until a final basket puts the Cardinals over the top. The final picture shows the clasped hands of all the players after the final buzzer goes off. The energetic text is matched by Chesworth's ink-and-watercolor artwork that features multiracial teams of girls zooming up and down the court. Older kids may like this just as well as primary-graders. A popular topic combined with a short, repetitive text makes this a good choice for those learning to read. (Reviewed December 15, 1997)

Slowing now / to a coast, / Marie breaks free, / to the post. / Inside move, what a dare, / jump shot flying through the air...SWISH! Blue Jay basket!' A fast-paced rhyme carries the reader through a girls' basketball championship game, and tension mounts as the Cardinals and Blue Jays play neck-and-neck to a buzzer-beater victory. Energetic illustrations capture the intense emotions of an exciting game.

K-Gr 3--With rhythmic rhyme and dynamic art, Swish! draws readers into the final minute of a hotly contested game between two girls' basketball teams, the Cardinals and the Blue Jays. The text echoes the fast-paced excitement of the game, punctuated by the slower "dribble...dribble...dribble" as each player decides where to place the ball. Both sides score and the red team calls a frantic time out, coming back to win with a three-pointer in the last second. Chesworth's drawings are full of motion. He zooms in from the first picture where the perspective is high in the bleachers, and then swoops down into the middle of the court with the team. Readers can nearly hear the gasping breaths and smell the sweaty uniforms in the struggle for that winning basket. The cartoonlike character of the pictures and the primary colors of the uniforms make this a bright and cheery choice for reading aloud to budding basketball enthusiasts. It makes an interesting contrast to the more serious tone and subdued colors of Robert Burleigh and Stephen Johnson's Hoops (Harcourt, 1997).--Connie C. Rockman, Stratford Library Association, CT