Freestyle is a 2022 graphic novel penned by Gale Galligan, known for their work on The Babysitters Club graphic novels released through Scholastic's Graphix line.
Freestyle chronicles the tale of a young Filipino-American boy named Cory Tan. He's part of a small breakdancing crew going by the tag-name of Eight Bitz, and its leader, Tess Reyes, is dead-set on winning a high-octane dance competition, mostly because it's the last one they'll be able to attend before they have to split up to attend different high schools. There are just a few things getting in the way of that, though: for starters, Tess is getting increasingly draconian about getting the dance routine right, blowing up at her fellow dancers if they get a smidge of it wrong. Then there's the fact that Cory's grades have been slipping somewhat, much to the anger of his parents (mostly his mother Alice), and they become dead-set on making sure Cory's grades get high enough to get a passing grade. Even worse, the tutor they hired is Sunna Ahmad, a Muslim girl who has the highest grades in Cory's class. And to top it all off, Sunna has not made any good impressions on Cory, and when their first study session boils over into a fight, Cory's parents respond to this by grounding him, which puts a severe dent in his plans to help his crew win the competition. Everything seems like it's headed for the scrapheap...that is, until Cory accidentally runs into Sunna behind the school and learns an incredible secret about her: she has a yo-yo, and she's actually pretty damn good with it too. Upon Sunna giving Cory a small lesson, she and Cory come to an agreement; she'll teach him all there is to know about yo-yoing in exchange for his cooperation in getting his grades up. Over time, a genuine friendship between Cory and Sunna begins to bloom...at the cost of bailing on dance practices, and his crew is not happy to hear about it, especially as Tess's obsession with getting the routine right continues to grow. With mounting pressure coming in from all sides, how exactly is Cory supposed to balance the expectations of his parents, his school, his dance crew, and his new friend without someone getting hurt?
Break down those funky tropes!
- Abusive Parents: Sunna's parents are accidentally of the emotional variant. They have a bad habit of constantly comparing Sunna to the successes of her older brother Imran, which led to Sunna distancing herself from her brother. Sunna does try to call them out on this, but to no avail.
- The Ace: Sunna has the highest grades in her class, and is unbelievably skilled at yo-yoing. This is mostly out of pressure put on her by her parents, as her brother Imran is a bigger case.
- Big Brother Mentor: Sunna's incredibly skilled with a yo-yo, mostly because she had her brother Imran as a teacher.
- Calling the Old Man Out: After a fight breaks out between Cory and the Eight Bitz team about the true reason Tess is getting on their cases about getting the routine right, upon getting his stellar test scores, a burned-out Cory takes the opportunity to rip his parents a new one for prioritizing his grades over his mental well-being.Cory: Congratulations. You must be so happy to have everything you want.
Alice: Excuse me?
Cory: You finally have your perfect son...who gets good grades...always comes home right on time because he doesn't dance...and doesn't have any friends!!
Alice: If you were a perfect son, you wouldn't be yelling at your parents! We raised you to be respectful! We raised you to get these results, and this is how you thank us?!
Cory: I never asked for that! I've been miserable and all you care about is a bunch of stupid numbers! But I guess you've been too focused on results to notice!
Philip: Cory, that's enough.
Cory: Then why don't you ground me again? It's not like I have anywhere to go.- Sunna nearly does the same, but to no avail.
Sunna's father: Oh, I saw that your test scores came in. Very impressive. Almost as high as Imran's, if I recall. That reminds me; have you spoken with him recently? He missed our Wednesday call.
Sunna: What about me? Have you ever wondered how I'm doing?
Sunna's mother: Sunna...we don't need to call you. You're right here. - Education Mama: Cory's parents and Sunna's parents fit the bill, especially Cory's mom Alice who grounds him over his declining grades, while Sunna's continuously compare her grades to her brother Imran's. The story does not hesitate to show the mental and emotional strain such pressure puts on them both, as the relationship between the Ahmad siblings is unbelievably strained as a result (albeit a one-sided one), and Cory ultimately explodes at his parents over this once his test scores come in.
- Insufferable Genius: It's brief, but to say Sunna does not make a good impression on Cory at first would be an understatement. This actually leads to fights where A: a chemistry class experiment goes horribly wrong and ends up destroying someone's backpack, and B: the fight that ends with Cory getting grounded and starting up one of the novel's driving conflicts.
- The Perfectionist: Tess. One of the story's conflicts is that with a huge dance competition inbound, Tess slowly becomes obsessed with making sure everyone in the Eight Bitz gets the routine exactly right, much to their growing frustration. It's revealed that this is because Tess wants to do choreography as a career, and she plans to use the routine as part of her application to a prestigious dance school.
- Ship Tease: While Cory and Sunna ultimately don't start dating, they rather quickly start getting along pretty well once they really get to know each other. The closest they get to something resembling a romance is Sunna getting somewhat flirtatious with Cory, even doing a Coy, Girlish Flirt Pose at one point, Cory asking Sunna to the Halloween dance and Cory penning an apology sonnet to her which she responds with by hugging her phone in Tears of Joy.
- Stylistic Suck: Cory pens a small sonnet to Sunna as an apology for taking her for granted, and it...could stand to be better, though Sunna does greatly appreciate it nevertheless.Cory: (on text message) sorry sunna, ur tutoring was not good enough to save my poetry.
- The Team: Cory is part of a breakdancing team called Eight Bitz, consisting of himself, Tess, and their friends Henry, Dia, Glenn, Sho, Hannah, Asha, and Sunna, at the final chapter.
- You Are Grounded!: Alice immediately grounds Cory when an argument breaks out between him and Sunna.
