​Aniana Del Mar Jumps In lends itself well as an independent reading selection (see ideas on who to recommend it to below) as well as a captivating text for teaching theme and author’s craft. Your students will love it as much as you do.

Title: Aniana Del Mar Jumps In

Author: Jasminne Mendez

Genre: Realistic fiction, novel in verse

Age range: 9+

Summary: Ani loves to swim. When in the water—whether the ocean around her home of Galveston, TX or in the pool for a swim meet—Ani is free and able to fly. But her Mami, plagued by traumatic hurricanes of her youth, fears the water and forbids Ani from swimming. And Ani’s own body aches and swells from an autoimmune disease that challenges Ani to accept all parts of herself.

(Love another book that shows a young character battling chronic disease? Please share, I’d love to check it out!)

“Aniana Del Mar Jumps In” is similar to:

✈️ Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo: Both are novels in verse featuring families from the Dominican Republic, with a teenage girl main character who loves to swim. Start with Aniana Del Mar in middle school then guide students to Clap When You Land in high school.

🏡 Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga: This is another novel in verse featuring a middle school girl who has to navigate shaping her own identity amidst her family’s immigration story and the trauma in her parents’ past.

👻 Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier: In this graphic novel, Maya (like Ani) has a disease that prevents her from doing everything she wants to. Both stories depict medical, physical, and emotional impacts of having a chronic illness.

Why it’s an engaging addition to your classroom library:

• Ani’s Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis diagnosis will be refreshingly relatable to your students who battle chronic illnesses or diseases. They may not be accustomed to seeing their journey of constant doctor’s appointments, medications, medical tests, and feeling sick reflected back to them in a book.
• Your young athletes will delight in Ani’s competitive swimming. The competitions, the trophies, the scouting—and the setbacks. Physical education teachers, start your classroom library with Aniana.
• Ani’s Mami immigrated to the USA from the Dominican Republic, creating a thoughtful storyline of growing up with parents caught between two cultures. If you teach a unit on human migration, Ani’s story is a worthy add.
• Maria Tere is Ani’s fun-loving, basketball-playing best friend who also likes girls. Her first crush unfolds throughout the story and will be a magnetic storyline for readers navigating young romantic feelings.

Final Two Cents: A beautiful addition to your “novel in verse” unit — especially if it’s a Book Club!

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