Really fun middle grades graphic novel about a team of middle school outcasts discovering who they are. LGBTQ and multicultural friendly.

The Breakaways is a LGBTQ comic and about sports and friendship, which makes it wonderful. I wish there would be more sports comics for girls! Faith starts middle school, but doesn't have any real friends and doesn't really fit in either. Suddenly the popular girl asks her to join a soccer team and she does thinking that they'd be friends, but Faith ends up on the C team and not A or even B and the team consists of girls not really into playing even. The team isn't even a team and everyone has their own drama. It takes the team their time to become one as the individual girls learn more about themselves and each other and find common ground - they get to be friends. It's a long road though, and not easy, which is great. I love how diverse The Breakaways is and how everyone has their own problems and views about things. It's a realistic story, but quite sporadic and hard to follow. Structure doesn't fully work, which is a shame.

The art looks rough and sketchy at times, but it's easy to follow and the flat colors both work and not at the same time. For younger readers this is good, since the art makes this easier to follow, when the story itself is slightly all over the place. The panels are clear and I enjoyed the facial expressions. I'm just not sure if this appeals to the target audience. The Breakaways feels like it's for adults that can looks back on their years instead of living them now and this could be a big problem. We'll see. Still, this is a good comic and once again something that is lacking.

Thanks for the galley, NetGalley! I enjoyed this one and loved the accepting attitudes of the middle schoolers in the story. I also liked that the girls in the story were still middle schoolers and teased each other, but were supportive of each other when it counted. It is one of the few middle school books I've read that features a trans character who is readily accepted by his friends when he decides to come out.

First Second does it again! I am not a sports fan at all, but I think this puts you in the mindset of a middle schooler perfectly. I could see readers of this growing older and liking Lumberjanes as the next series to read.