Review by Frank Plowright

Jay is bored. Their brother takes part in plenty of activities, but none appeals to Jay, until one day noticing a bunch of girls skipping. Beah is extremely welcoming, Jay finds a home joining in, and she’s also encouraging when it comes to Jay’s writing. It seems a chance meeting is going to have a profound effect on their life. The team have a competition coming up and Jay might be the missing link.

Skip! is ultimately a meditation on what it means to be a friend, Sarah Burgess introducing problems for what are basically a bunch of well-intentioned teens, but in the manner of most teenagers they’re unable to see past their own desires to the needs of others. While Beah and Jay’s friendship develops, there’s an element of dependency to the relationship, which is well defined by the writing.

The art is more problematical, with the cover providing a good example. Rather than defining the content it’s almost deliberately wilful in obscuring what’s happening. A cover should prioritise clarity, and this doesn’t. It takes looking long and hard to make out how Beah and Jay are posed and what they’re doing. Burgess is much better with defining movement inside, as shown on the sample pages, and there’s a real skill to any scene featuring actual skipping. Stepping away from that, the characters are loosely drawn, sometimes charmingly, but equally as often in exaggerated poses well beyond what’s required to convey the feelings of the moment.

Burgess makes an effort with an inclusive cast, but apart from the two leads, no-one develops from when we first see them, and once the plot gets into full swing some may feel poor behaviour is all too easily forgiven.