PRAISE FOR BARELY FLOATING: Booklist Best Books of 2023 (Editor's Choice)
Kobo Best Books of 2023 (Kids)
2024 Rise: A Feminist Book Project List (Middle Grade: Fiction)
★ "Rivera's layered, sparkling middle-grade debut is Julie Murphy's
Dumplin' (2015) by way of Lisa Fipps'
Starfish (2021). . . . Display this empowering novel with Esther Williams' classic
Million Dollar Mermaid."
–Booklist, starred review ★ "Rivera brings a freshness to a conventional middle-grade story with flowing prose that effortlessly captures the complicated and often conflicting emotions of being a tween, especially one who has to face microaggressions for being fat, brown, Latina, and not rich."
–The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, starred review ★ "In laugh-out-loud, blunt prose, Rivera cultivates a touching and unapologetically positive interpretation of one tween's desire to break the mold."
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Publishers Weekly, starred review
"A body-positive story of growing up that's sure to make a splash"
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Kirkus Reviews