Aniana del Mar Jumps In
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
Pura Belpré Author Honor Award
** Four starred reviews!**
A powerful and expertly told novel in verse, by an award-winning poet, about a twelve-year-old Dominican American swimmer who is diagnosed with Juvenile Arthritis.
Aniana del Mar belongs in the water like a dolphin belongs to the sea. But she and Papi keep her swim practices and meets hidden from Mami, who has never recovered from losing someone she loves to the water years ago. That is, until the day Ani’s stiffness and swollen joints mean she can no longer get out of bed, and Ani is forced to reveal just how important swimming is to her. Mami forbids her from returning to the water, but Ani and her doctor believe that swimming, along with medication, will help Ani manage her disease. What follows is the journey of a girl who must grieve who she once was in order to rise like the tide and become the young woman she is meant to be. Aniana del Mar Jumps In is a poignant story about chronic illness and disability, the secrets between mothers and daughters, the harm we do to the ones we love the most—and all the triumphs, big and small, that keep us afloat.
"Beautiful in its honesty and vulnerability, this is a powerful story about dreams and bodily agency that sings from the heart.”—Natalia Sylvester, award-winning author of Breathe and Count Back From Ten
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Galveston, Tex., 12-year-old Aniana del Mar loves to swim: "All I want/ is to/ slip/ slide/ drift/ glide." During daddy-daughter dates, she and Papi head to the YMCA for swim practice and meets, but the two keep these events secret from Mami, who still grieves losing "her brother/ her house and/ her village" as a child during Hurricane Georges, and regularly fears the worst for her family. But everything comes crashing down when Ani's occasional post-exercise aches and swelling intensify into chronic pain, "statue-stiff/ mornings and clumsy/ collapses," and a diagnosis of juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Religious Mami believes that God is punishing Ani for keeping secrets and lies with her father, and, in spite of the physical therapist's recommendation otherwise, bans all swimming. Ani meanwhile feels abandoned by Papi, who's frequently away working for the Coast Guard. Via myriad poetic forms and sensorial verse, Mendez viscerally details the emotional family tumult of grief, mistrust, and resentment alongside Ani's heartfelt quest to reunite with water. Back matter details poetic forms used and notes that Mendez, like Aniana, is Dominican American and lives with chronic illness and disability. Ages 8–12.
