Breathe and Count Back from Ten

Rigidkovrila, 336 paĝoj

Eldonita je 9-a de majo 2022 de Clarion Books.

ISBN:: 978-0-358-53686-4

(1 recenzo)

In this gorgeously written and authentic novel, Verónica, a Peruvian-American teen with hip dysplasia, auditions to become a mermaid at a Central Florida theme park in the summer before her senior year, all while figuring out her first real boyfriend and how to feel safe in her own body.

Verónica has had many surgeries to manage her disability. The best form of rehabilitation is swimming, so she spends hours in the pool, but not just to strengthen her body.

Her Florida town is home to Mermaid Cove, a kitschy underwater attraction where professional mermaids perform in giant tanks . . . and Verónica wants to audition. But her conservative Peruvian parents would never go for it. And they definitely would never let her be with Alex, her cute new neighbor.

She decides it’s time to seize control of her life, but her plans come crashing down when she learns her …

In this gorgeously written and authentic novel, Verónica, a Peruvian-American teen with hip dysplasia, auditions to become a mermaid at a Central Florida theme park in the summer before her senior year, all while figuring out her first real boyfriend and how to feel safe in her own body.

Verónica has had many surgeries to manage her disability. The best form of rehabilitation is swimming, so she spends hours in the pool, but not just to strengthen her body.

Her Florida town is home to Mermaid Cove, a kitschy underwater attraction where professional mermaids perform in giant tanks . . . and Verónica wants to audition. But her conservative Peruvian parents would never go for it. And they definitely would never let her be with Alex, her cute new neighbor.

She decides it’s time to seize control of her life, but her plans come crashing down when she learns her parents have been hiding the truth from her—the truth about her own body.

3 eldonoj

Stephanie Jane recenzis Breathe and Count Back from Ten de Natalia Sylvester

A stunning YA novel

5 steloj

Breathe And Count Back From Ten is a stunning young adult novel which transcends that genre. It is about treading a fine line between the cultures of one's family and one's adopted family, about the daily challenges of living with disability and the impact of other people's well-meaning ignorance, and about how social conditioning of young women to smile and be agreeable however uncomfortable the situation can leave us without the tools to fend off inappropriate male behaviour. In a novel that was so powerful on so many levels, that last aspect was the one that made me feel as though Natalia Sylvester really saw me. We come from opposite sides of the planet and have very different physical realities, but Verónica's parents' insistence on girls being 'nice' and not making a fuss, regardless of how awkward and upset we were made to feel, exactly mirrored my own upbringing. Verónica, …

Breathe And Count Back From Ten is a stunning young adult novel which transcends that genre. It is about treading a fine line between the cultures of one's family and one's adopted family, about the daily challenges of living with disability and the impact of other people's well-meaning ignorance, and about how social conditioning of young women to smile and be agreeable however uncomfortable the situation can leave us without the tools to fend off inappropriate male behaviour. In a novel that was so powerful on so many levels, that last aspect was the one that made me feel as though Natalia Sylvester really saw me. We come from opposite sides of the planet and have very different physical realities, but Verónica's parents' insistence on girls being 'nice' and not making a fuss, regardless of how awkward and upset we were made to feel, exactly mirrored my own upbringing. Verónica, fortunately for her, worked out the danger of such submissiveness at seventeen. I still often struggle to overcome those ingrained behaviour patterns even after some three decades more of life experience.

For such an important novel which does encompass such deep themes, Breathe And Count Back From Ten is also an engaging read which feels light and energetic. I loved Verónica as a person and her burgeoning relationship with Alex is a joy to read. Both are dealing with serious problems, yet their ways of appreciating and understanding each other felt genuine and hopeful. Verónica's relationships with her family also feel utterly authentic. Their disagreements are rooted in love, with strong desires from each to protect the others leading to traumatic communication failures.

Breathe And Count Back From Ten's young protagonist and her coming of age story will appeal widely (I hope) to young adult audiences, but this is very much a story that I think older readers will appreciate too. I certainly never felt as though I were reading a book that was 'too young' for me, and the complexity of Sylvester's themes give a lot of food for thought.