Lilliam Rivera is an award-winning writer and the author of the young adult novels Dealing in Dreams, The Education of Margot Sanchez, Never Look Back, We Light Up the Sky, and the middle grade novels Goldie Vance: The Hotel Whodunit and Barely Floating. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Elle, among others. Her novel Never Look Back is slated for an Amazon movie adaptation.
"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) 2024 Bank Street Best Children’s Books The Latinidad List Best Latino Books of 2023 ★ “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.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review ""A body-positive story of growing up that’s sure to make a splash"" —Kirkus Reviews"