Breathe and Count Back From Ten // Natalia Sylvester

 Of course I picked this book up because the flap copy said it featured a character who wants to become a professional mermaid performer. Mermaid anything will hook me every time. But I stayed with it once I began reading because Verónica was such a compelling main character voice. She was real and raw on the page. 

As she dealt with her family, her protective parents, various kinds of boy struggles, internal wrestling over her hip dysplasia, and how to follow her dreams yet stay true to herself I was drawn along on her journey. Her Peruvian culture was such an integral part of the story as was her past, present, and future with her hip, but neither of these things whacked the reader over the head. Verónica is just a teenager figuring out her identity and how to embrace the complexity of those things that make us unique as an individual but universal as a human. 

Each chapter opens with a word defined by the dictionary, and then redefined by Verónica's own experiences. I loved that. What a cool way to explore how we live in the world yet we reshape it even as it shapes us. We use language that already has meaning attached to it, and we continue to redefine it according to our experiences and what is meaningful to us. Parts of this story were painful to read, but Natalia Sylvester was so gentle and sensitive in her approach without sacrificing or ignoring the pain and difficulty. The final sentence is simply beautiful once you've traveled through the book: "I come up for air, and I can breathe again." Happy sigh. 

I'm excited about the amount of books coming out (particularly in middle grade!) where the main characters are ethnically diverse, religiously diverse, are differently-abled, neuro-diverse, inclusive of orientation of identity...and I'm sure other facets that I'm forgetting to mention. When I was growing up, there was one kind of character that you saw in children's books, and all the characters looked like myself. It was really rare to read about an experience that differed from my own upbringing and when you did it was usually a book that centered children's perspectives from war or an explosive historical moment. My heart aches when I think about how the majority of kids growing up in my era or before me didn't have stories to point to where kids like them are just existing and living and having adventures. I love the diversity of authors that is growing and I have hope that we can do even better in the future. Let this not be a phase in publishing! If I couldn't see myself in a book, I would hate reading. A literary world where any kid could pick up a book and see themself and their experiences reflected is just UGH I want that for every kid!