Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

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.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Tricked into joining the soccer team on her first day in middle school, Faith, a loner who is looking for somewhere to fit in, stumbles through practice and lands on the C team. Her teammates are other misfits who are more preoccupied with personal struggles than with soccer, and Faith gradually wins over many of them as friends. Faith also finds escape in her own inner life, which Johnson represents as a series of dreams with a warrior named Mathilda, with whom Faith visits a king and prepares to build a castle. Johnson (Jeremiah) presents an eclectic group of middle schoolers who are exploring issues of gender identity, sexuality, ethnicity, mental health, and more. Using minimal detail, the artwork realistically portrays the characters' relatable emotions and wide-ranging reactions. Her young people also represent a diverse array of sizes, shapes, colors, and notions of attractiveness. Johnson's graphic novel will resonate with readers who are figuring out who they are and where they belong. Ages 8-11. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

School Library Journal Review

Gr 4-8-Faith has just joined the Bloodhounds, the middle school girls' soccer C team, made up of the least skilled players. But this isn't one of those heartwarming sports stories where an inspirational coach rallies the underdogs to victory. Instead, these Dogs lose every game and feud with one another while the coach spends most practices on his phone. Vignettes show the players' varied home lives, interests, and friendship dramas. Sketchy full-color artwork features characters with exaggerated expressions. Faith and her teammates are diverse in body type and ethnicity. One player comes out as trans and another as queer during the course of the story, and both have supportive friends. Readers who like a touch of romance will enjoy seeing two sweet relationships blossom on the page. Realistic scenes of school, soccer practice, and sleepovers are interspersed with Faith's daydreams about adventures on horseback with a handsome butch royal messenger named Mathilda, who inspires Faith to unite her misfit teammates, team or no team. VERDICT A down-to-earth friendship story for readers of Svetlana Chmakova's Awkward, Jennifer L. Holm's Sunny Side Up, and Raina Telgemeier's Drama.-Sarah Stone, San Francisco -Public Library © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

The Bloodhounds sort of suck at soccer, but winning a game is hardly the point of this ensemble story that focuses on the sometimes-awkward, shifting bonds of middle-­school friendship. When Faith signs up for soccer, which she's never played before, she ends up on the C team and meets Sodacan and Marie, who introduce the rest of the players. From there on, nearly every Bloodhound gets a few pages to herself, and while that spreads the story a little thin and can make the plot a bit hard to follow, it also gives the players plenty of room to develop into appealingly fleshed-out characters. Accordingly, Johnson's character designs, with coloring by Kevin Czap, are spectacular: the middle-schoolers vary greatly in size, skin tone, and body type, and Johnson's clearly paid attention to how bodies move, since her characters' gestures, facial expressions, and postures have as much to say about their personalities as do their words and actions. Readers looking for a soccer story might be disappointed, but kids after empowering, character-driven stories about realistic friendships will fall in love.--Sarah Hunter Copyright 2010 Booklist

Horn Book Review

Colors by Kevin Czap. On the first day of middle school, popular girl Amanda recruits fifth grader Faith for the soccer team. Faith winds up on the bottom-of-the-barrel C team, along with a bunch of misfits. The teammates slowly bond and--realistically--never improve at soccer. Johnson's expressive graphic-novel panels show a diverse cast with all sorts of body types, skin colors, and sexual and gender identities. (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

This jam-packed graphic novel featuring diverse girls tackles friendship, identity, and more.When black fifth-grader Faith is recruited to the girls soccer team on the first day of school, she hopes to be welcomed into the popular older crowd. But Sodacan and Marie, two cynical but welcoming white seventh-graders, inform her that the three of them are firmly at the bottom of the C team. At night, Faith draws and then dreams of a mysterious brown-skinned knight named Mathilda who whisks her away on magical adventures that help her navigate her waking surroundings. Each team member has life issues that they bring onto the field: Crushes, sexual harassment, rivalries, and cliques provide enough distraction to keep the team from winning. It's an exciting portrayal of young characters exploring their sexual and cultural identities, but there is an awful lot going on. With so many characters and storylines it becomes difficult to grasp any singular theme or connect with all of the personalities. Hijabi MVP Nadia helps rescue the season; vegan Sodacan recruits teammates into her all-girl band; Latinx Yarelis takes the game super seriously; Vietnamese-American Huong's busy parents are unable to attend her matches. In one of the many sensitively handled moments, one player comes out to a teammate as a trans boy during a sleepover. Happily, though it's stylized, Johnson's art successfully individuates the many characters, aided by Czap's soft pastels. Readers will be sorry there are no additional volumes planned to flesh out these characters further. Groundbreakingand as complicated as middle school. (Graphic fiction. 8-14) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.