Ana's Story: A Journey of Hope

Ana's life is a collection of bits and pieces of her past. Infected at birth with HIV, she had lost her mother, her father and youngest sister to AIDS. Ana is unaware of many details from her early childhood, with only blurry memories of her parents and baby sister. Ana and her younger sister Isabel are sent to live with their grandparents, where ten-year-old Ana is informed by her grandmother that she has HIV. She is told to keep her illness a secret from others - just one of the many secrets young Ana is forced to keep to herself - from sexual and physical abuse perpetrated by her grandparents, to broader neglect and mistreatment from her other family members.

Shuffled from home to home, Ana rarely finds safety or acceptance. Until she meets and falls in love with Berto, becomes pregnant, and then a mother at age seventeen. She begins her journey of hope - a journey of protection of herself, her baby, and others. Struggling to break free from the cycle of abuse, silence, and illness with passion and eloquence - proving to the world that Ana is living with, not dying from HIV/AIDS.

I enjoyed this book. I think that it could be very instructive for children who are affected by HIV and/or AIDS. I give this book an A! ( )

This is a wonderful and moving biography. The story is compelling. Ana is real and her courage and determination are boundless. This is neither an ego trip nor a feel good book, This is no teary, sentimental one. It does, however, leave the reader in awe of this young woman and her sisters, all over the world, who are coping with the challenges that life has given them.

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Lots of great resources in back for group discussion and how to help yourself or others. ( )

This book is a very good book i've already read it three times and for me its a quick read i read it every chance i got if you like good books like this you will love this book its about this girl and she is moving to different homes and she moves in with her grandma and her grandma has a boyfriend that beats ana and her little sister so one day she asked her friend if she could live with her and they said yeah so she went to her house and asked her grandma and she said no so she went to a school for girls and was nice there but didnt have no friends there and was worried about her sister because she had to stay with her grandma because once before she had tried to tell her grandma and she didnt belive her and hit her with a broom while sweeping i wouold reccomand this book to any body that likes books like this ( )

This book was obviously geared toward a middle school/high school age group. (I didn't know that going into it.) It turned out not to be half bad. Didn't like the ending much, but I understood why it stopped like it did. I feel like there could have been some kind of better way to tie things up. I was also slightly perturbed that Bush never mentioned exactly what country this was taking place in -- but maybe it was meant to leave some anonymity to it? Not sureIf I were a high school health teacher this would be a great book to read and have a discussion about. ( )