Barely Floating

Lilliam Rivera

$38.95

Hardback

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English

Kokila
29 August 2023

A dazzling story full of heart about how one twelve-year-old channels her rage into synchronized swimming dreams from The Education of Margot Sanchez author Lilliam Rivera.

Natalia De La Cruz Rivera y Santiago, also known as Nat, was swimming neighborhood kids out of their money at the local Inglewood pool when her life changed. The LA Mermaids performed, emerging out of the water with matching sequined swimsuits, and it was then that synchronized swimming stole her heart.

The problem? Her activist mom and professor dad think it's a sport with too much emphasis on looks--on being thin and white. Nat grew up the youngest in a house full of boys, so she knows how to fight for what she wants, often using her anger to fuel her. People often underestimate her swimming skills when they see her stomach rolls, but she knows better than to worry about what people think. Still, she feels more like a submarine than a mermaid, but she wonders if she might be both.

Barely Floating explores what it means to sparkle in your skin, build community with those who lift you up, and keep floating when waters get rough.

By: Lilliam Rivera
Imprint: Kokila
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 217mm, Width: 148mm, Spine: 23mm
Weight: 346g
ISBN: 9780593323120
ISBN 10: 0593323122
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 29 August 2023
Recommended Age: From 9 to 12 years
Audience: Children/juvenile , English as a second language
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Lilliam Rivera is an award-winning writer and author of the young adult novels Dealing in Dreams, The Education of Margot Sanchez, the middle grade novel Goldie Vance: The Hotel Whodunit, and the forthcoming Never Look Back by Bloomsbury. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Elle, to name a few.

Reviews for Barely Floating

"PRAISE FOR BARELY FLOATING: Three starred reviews! ★ “Rivera’s layered, sparkling middle-grade debut is Julie Murphy’s Dumplin’ (2015) by way of Lisa Fipps’ Starfish (2021). ... Display this empowering novel with Esther Williams’ classic Million Dollar Mermaid.” – Booklist, starred review ★ ""Rivera brings a freshness to a conventional middle-grade story with flowing prose that effortlessly captures the complicated and often conflicting emotions of being a tween, especially one who has to face microaggressions for being fat, brown, Latina, and not rich."" – The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, starred review ★ “In laugh-out-loud, blunt prose, Rivera cultivates a touching and unapologetically positive interpretation of one tween’s desire to break the mold.” – Publishers Weekly, starred review"