Breathe and Count Back From Ten
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.
Natalia's appearance is a school-visit only.
Natalia Sylvester
Natalia Sylvester is the Pura Belpré- and Schneider Family-honor winning author of the young adult novel Breathe and Count Back From Ten, and the award-winning author of the young adult novel Running and the adult novels Everyone Knows You Go Home and Chasing The Sun. Her first picture book A Maleta Full of Treasures, illustrated by Juana Medina, will be out April 16, 2024 from Penguin Random House.
Natalia's non-fiction has appeared in the New York Times, Bustle, Catapult, Electric Literature, Latina magazine, and McSweeney's Publishing. Her essays have been anthologized in collections such as A Map is Only One Story and A Measure of Belonging: Writers of Color on the New American South.
Born in Lima, Peru, Natalia came to the US at age four and grew up in Florida and the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. She received a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Miami, was a 2021 Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and was formerly a faculty member at the Mile-High MFA program at Regis University. She now lives in South Florida.