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** 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
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Creators
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Publisher
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Awards
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Release date
March 14, 2023 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780593634721
- File size: 135688 KB
- Duration: 04:42:40
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Starred review from January 30, 2023
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. Agent: Stefanie Sanchez Von Borstel, Full Circle Literary. -
April 1, 2023
Gr 5-9-Mendez makes both her middle grade fiction and narrator debuts, reciting her verse novel comprised of "several poetic forms"-including haiku and tanka, and also concrete/shape poems (albeit the page might be better suited for appreciating "Turtle Shell," "Fish Food," as examples). Aniana and Papi's "daddy-daughter dates" enable Aniana to secretly attend swim practice and meets without Mami knowing. Since losing her brother to drowning as children, Mami's forbidden Aniana from the water, never mind that Coast Guard-employed Papi is seabound for weeks at a time. When a mysterious illness debilitates Aniana's mobility, Mami insists she's being punished for lying. Her diagnosis says otherwise: juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Aniana knows-supported by doctors-that swimming is her best medicine, physically and mentally. Improvement will require she boldly claim that del Mar-"of the sea"-moniker. VERDICT Mendez reads rather than performs her girl-power story, but she ensures her characters are affectingly heard.
Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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