Classroom Connections: Deep Water by Jamie Sumner

age range: 10 and up
format / genre / topics: verse novel, contemporary fiction, swimming, family
Jame Sumner’s website

Readers will feel every wave of Tully’s emotions as she risks everything to try to get her mom’s attention. A powerful novel in verse.
—Lisa Fipps, author of Printz Honor book Starfish

A heartbreaking, heartwarming delight—a whole lake full of insight, and salty with tears.
—Catherine Gilbert Murdock, author of The Book of Boy

Packs a powerful punch.
— Kirkus Reviews

Each mile not only propels the race forward but delves deeper into Tully’s life story, drawing readers into her struggles and emotions. . . A wonderful read that will resonate with athletes, those navigating family challenges, and even reluctant readers; a strong addition to all middle grade library collections.
— School Library Journal

[In] this carefully crafted verse novel . . . Sumner compassionately examines the effects that living with a parent managing mental health challenges can have on a child.
— Publishers Weekly

Please tell us about your book.

Deep Water follows 12-year-old Tully Birch as she attempts to break the record for the youngest open water marathoner to swim across Lake Tahoe in the infamous “Godfather Swim.” The entire novel in verse takes place over six hours as her best friend Arch attempts to coach her across the waters. This novel is as much psychological as it is physical as Tully struggles to process her mother’s sudden abandonment of the family. There’s also a storm (of course there is), which mirrors Tully’s internal whirling emotions. It is by far my most action-packed, fast-paced novel I’ve ever written.

What inspired you to write this story?

I’ll share a little bit of the letter that went out to early readers. It best explains the impetus of the story:

My children are very into YouTube right now. They will watch anything. Bottle flipping, skateboard tricks, strangers playing video games, it’s all fair game. One day, I came up the stairs to find them huddled around their school-issued laptop (to be used for academic purposes only!) watching a video of a kid their own age who was swimming from the San Francisco coastline to Alcatraz. He had a team of people on a boat behind him cheering him on and I caught myself holding my breath to see if he could reach the prison’s shore. He did. Then he grinned for the camera and talked about how swimming gave him purpose and a defined place in his family of older brothers that he hadn’t had before. 

I could not stop thinking about that kid and how his face glowed with a sense of achievement at what he had done. Middle school is tough in so many ways, but it is also the time when we experiment the most with who we are and what we love. Deep Water is a book about a kid going through one of the most difficult times in her life. Her mother is in a mental health crisis and has just left the family. She does not know if she will return. A marathon swim across Lake Tahoe provides her with a goal and a means to process it. She works through her feelings in the open water.

Could you share with readers a few interesting tidbits about your writing process with this book?

This is my first novel in verse but it will not be my last! Poetry was my original love as a writer. I find the process of poetry so engaging. Because verse is so visual, it is a pleasure and a challenge to experiment with how the words appear on the page. I included several shape poems in here, which were the most fun, but also the hardest to create. I think the page designers still have migraines from them!

In addition to this new writing format, I addressed an issue I had never touched on in my books before: depression. Because of that I brought in a few sensitivity readers to make sure I adequately captured the mother’s experience. This is something I try to do with all my novels if I am addressing a sensitive and complex topic. I like to get second opinions. It would be a great disservice to devalue a reader’s lived experience, so I do my imperfect best to make it as accurate as possible. 

What topics do your book touch upon that would make it a perfect fit for the classroom?

This book touches on tough family dynamics, mental health issues, perfectionism, elitism, and the idea kids often have of “earning” love and affection both from their peers and their parents. I hope it sparks conversation in the classroom that is open and honest and judgment-free in all these areas. I also love the idea of kids practicing their own poetry after reading this book, particularly shape poems. I dare you to try to make your own lightning bolt out of words!