Breathe and Count Back From Ten by Natalia Sylvester

The quick cut: A Peruvian American girl struggles with her overbearing parents, disability, and being her authentic self.

A real review:

Being your authentic self is difficult at any age, but as a teenager it can feel impossible. Add a disability to the mix and that pressure is only more insufferable. For Veronica, it feels impossible to achieve when her hip dysplasia complicates everything.

Veronica is a Peruvian American girl with immigrant parents that want her to make all the right decisions. Choose a job with a resume building potential, stay focused on the future, and don't get caught with boys. It doesn't leave room for Veronica to truly be who she is. So when an opportunity to get a job as a mermaid and express herself arrives, she is willing to do anything to make it happen. Can she really be herself?

This book is all about authentic representation and it comes from all angles: heritage, disability, and personality. Veronica isn't perfect and at times can be selfish, but it is a realistic one. Seeing confident and true disability representation of this type is so important to see.

Veronica is a girl who is fascinated by mermaids and her mother only helped in creating that in her. Stories and myths of their origins abounded when she was younger. She's passionate about things that aren't necessarily something to build a career on, but at the age it's my opinion that it is important.

The story does an epic job at naturally creating awareness of what hip dysplasia is and how it can effect a person's life. Between the swimming she does and the doctor's visits she has, you get a real idea of what the condition is like. True, all encompassing representation is rare and beautiful to see.

There is also a teen boy with depression who leaves his own version of disability representation that is just as essential. Far too often, boys get told that they need to be tough and not admit to mental health struggles. What the character does here is address his issue and ask exactly for what he needs to improve. It's brave and exactly the type of example we need for anyone.

A powerful and authentic representation story.

My rating: 5 out of 5