 | Deep Water Author: Sumner, Jamie | |
| Price: $7.37 | ||
Summary:
Twelve-year-old Tully's attempt to swim across Lake Tahoe after a heartbreaking loss and become the youngest person to complete the famous "Godfather" swim takes a dangerous turn, forcing her to choose between safety and a win that could change everything.
Reviews:
Kirkus Reviews (03/01/24)
School Library Journal (02/01/24)
Booklist (+) (04/15/24)
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (+) (00/04/24)
The Hornbook (+) (00/07/24)
Full Text Reviews:
Booklist - 04/15/2024 *Starred Review* A competitive swimmer tackles deep waters both physical and emotional in this novel in poems. Framed in free verses with occasional shaped entries, 12-year-old Tully’s monologue chronicles journeys both inner and outer as, in a desperate bid to make contact with her vanished mother, she undertakes a record-breaking solo swim across Lake Tahoe that they had planned together. Along with giving lovers of metaphor plenty of grist—there’s even a climactic thunderstorm, which brings the physical hazard to a high pitch even as Tully contemplates letting the waters take her—Sumner sensitively maps a troubled relationship between an eager-to-please daughter and a demanding parent whose clinical depression manifests as restless, impulsive behavior exacerbated by an aversion to medication and therapy. The author vividly renders the extreme efforts required to finish the long swim, giving Tully’s inner progress like length and depth; though her mother remains absent by the end, she has the satisfaction of making good on her boast “I can do HARD THINGS” and of not only working through her own (inevitable) guilt but weighing her feelings of abandonment against the steadfast love and loyalty shown by both her unathletic best friend, who nerved himself to accompany her in a small boat, and her steady, taciturn, undemonstrative dad. Readers will be swept up in the currents and undercurrents. - Copyright 2024 Booklist.
