Betsy Jay

Cute, clever story about Jane, who has as many reasons not to learn to swim as her mother has to encourage her to do so. But it's Jimmy's taunting her that makes all the difference.
There is a message from the National Safety Council at the end of the book explaining that "drowning is preventable!"

Animals appear frequently: Jane plans on being an elephant rider in the circus and swimming is not necessary for that. I think the bathing suit with the dinosaur that changes color in a pool might have been enough to make me try getting wet, but it doesn't do it for Jane. Jane argues that cats don't swim and that she is "a cross between a person and a cat. I look like a person on the outside, but I'm a cat on the inside." (I'm not sure Jane truly believes this, unlike the eponymous hero of Daniel Pinkwater's I Was a Second Grade Werewolf. Ah,well.) SPOILER: Finally, it's Jimmy telling her that chickens and girts can't swim that changes Jane's mind ... and leads her to discover that swimming trunks can float.… (meer)