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Overview
Ana's life is a collection of bits and pieces of her past. Infected with HIV at birth, she's unaware of many details of her early childhood and barely remembers her mother. Living with her strict grandmother, she learns how to keep secrets – secrets about her infection and about the abuse she endures at home. But after Ana falls in love and becomes pregnant at seventeen, she begins a journey of hope – a journey of protecting herself and others. She is living with HIV, not dying from it.
Jenna Bush tells of Ana's struggle to break free from the cycle of abuse, silence, and illness with passion and eloquence. But this is not just Ana's story. It is also the story of many children around the world who are marginalized, neglected, and mistreated.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780061756160 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins |
| Publication date: | 01/17/2024 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 308 |
| Sales rank: | 918,322 |
| Lexile: | 850L (what's this?) |
| File size: | 6 MB |
| Age Range: | 12 - 18 Years |
About the Author
Mia Baxter graduated from University of Texas with a degree in photojournalism. She has worked as a freelance editorial documentary photographer in New York before interning for UNICEF in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Mia Baxter se graduó de Fotoperiodismo en la Universidad de Texas. Trabajó como fotógrafa editorial y documental independiente en la ciudad de Nueva York antes de participar en un programa de experiencia práctica con UNICEF en Latinoamérica y el Caribe.
Read an Excerpt
Ana's Story
A Journey of HopeBy Jenna Bush
HarperCollins
Copyright © 2007 Jenna BushAll right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-06-137908-6
Chapter One
1
Ana had one picture of her mother. It was not an original photograph but a color photocopy.
The image had been laminated, sealed in plastic for protection, so that it would last forever. When she was ten, Ana decorated the corners with sparkly stickers of flowers and stars. She handled the photocopy so often that the corners had started to curl and the plastic had begun to fray and come apart.
All of her life, Ana's aunts and uncles told her that she looked just like her mamá. Ana sometimes stood in front of the mirror, holding the photocopy next to her face. She wanted to see if her eyes really were the same as her mother's. Ana shifted her focus from her eyes to her mother's eyes until the images blurred and she could not tell where her mother ended and she began.
In the photocopy, Ana's mother was young; she was only sixteen when Ana was born. She had big brown eyes and feathers of dyed blond hair. Her skin, the color of cocoa, looked fresh, smooth, and polished. Ana hoped her family was right; she hoped she looked like her beautiful mamá.
Ana's mother had been gone for so long that Ana could only recall the curves of her face by looking at the ragged photocopy. Ana taped the picture to the wall of her bedroom at pillow height so that she could stare at it before she went to sleep, comforted in knowing that if she ever forgot what her mother looked like, she could glance over and remember.
2
Ana had only one actual memory of her mother. It was not vivid but vague and somewhat confusing. She remembered this piece of her past like a black-and-white movie, the images blurred and out of focus, beyond reach.
In the memory-Ana's first-she was three years old. She stood in the hallway outside a bathroom; her mother was on the other side of the door, sobbing and wailing.
"Mamá," Ana whispered through the wooden door. "Are you okay?"
She could hear her mother crying, then trying to catch her breath.
"Mamá?"
Ana put her hand on the knob and turned it. She pulled open the door and peeked inside. Her mother leaned against the wall with one hand and turned and looked at Ana through puffy red eyes. Her mother's hand trembled as she reached up to wipe the tears that streamed down her cheeks.
"Ana," her father said from the hall, "leave Mamá alone, por favor." Ana felt confused and afraid. Her papá's eyes were also red and he, too, had been crying.
"Your sister Lucía-," he started, then stopped. He drew a deep breath and then said quickly, "Your sister has died."
Ana heard the words, but she didn't really understand. She was too young to comprehend the meaning of death and grief. All she saw was that Mamá and Papá were crying, and that made her uneasy and afraid.
"Okay," Ana whispered, backing away from the door.
She knew that her mother had gone to the hospital and given birth to her youngest sister in the summertime. She knew that Lucía was sick and that her mother had come home without the baby. Mamá went to see Lucía at the hospital every morning but always returned home alone.
Ana had never met her baby sister, and now she never would.
Lucía died when she was two months old.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Ana's Story by Jenna Bush Copyright © 2007 by Jenna Bush. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Preface 1
Ana's Story 7
Afterword 242
A Letter from Jenna Bush 245
You Can Make a Difference 249
Protect Yourself, Protect Others 259
Websites and Help Lines 269
What's the Real Deal? Ten Myths about HIV/AIDS 275
Do You Know the Whole Story? Ten Myths About Abuse 280
Discussion Questions for Ana's Story 285