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INTERMEDIATE FICTION
Rivera, Lilliam

Barely Floating

240 pp. | Penguin/Kokila | August, 2023 | Trade ISBN 9780593323120 $17.99 | Ebook ISBN 9780593323144 $10.99
(2) 4-6 Tween Nat (short for Natalia de la Cruz Rivera y Santiago) is all about body positivity­ and female strength. She feels conflicted, however, when her mother's values around feminism clash with her own love of pretty things--lipstick, fashion magazines, and especially the spangles on the swimsuits of the L.A. Mermaids, a synchronized swimming group Nat is desperate to join. She blackmails her older cousin, Sheila, into covering for her and facilitating her participation on the team, but the secrets Nat and Sheila start to come between them and their families and friends. Nat navigates the rough waters of racial bias, fat-shaming, economic class hierarchies, and her own issues with impulse control and anger management, all while wishing (and doubting) her parents could be proud of her choices. By building community with her artistic swimming team, whose training Rivera describes in detail, Nat learns that she can't win every battle, and she reconfigures her concept of winning. Although the book itself sometimes succumbs to Nat's conviction that sometimes "teachable moments have to be forced," ultimately Nat, her mother, and even ultra-feminine Sheila grow into a new understanding of what it means to be a chingona--a fearless Latina.
Reviewer: | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2023

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