Mister God, This is Anna

by Fynn, William Papas (Illustrator)

THE TOUCHING TRUE STORY THAT WON THE HEARTS OF MILLIONS OF READERS AROUND THE WORLD!

Anna was only four years old when Fynn found her on London's fog-shrouded docks. He took her back to his mother's home, and from that first moment, their times together were filled with delight and discovery. Anna had an astonishing ability to ask--and to answer--life's largest questions. Her total openness and honesty amazed all who knew her. She seemed to understand with uncanny certainty the purpose of being, the essence of feeling, the beauty of love. You see, Anna had a very special friendship with Mister God. . . .

Genres: Fiction, Religion, Spirituality, Philosophy, Christian, Classics, Young Adult

298 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Fynn is the pen name of Sydney "Sid" George Hopkins, born in Poplar, London 26th March 1919 - died in Somerset 3rd July 1999.

Sid was a student and later staff member at Finchden Manor, now a defunct reform school,in Tenterden Kent, as described in the book Mr Lyward's Answer.

Sid Hopkins spent the last years of his life living in Taunton, Somerset, England.

ALAN MITCHELL profile, Church House Publishing
http://www.chpublishing.co.uk/feature...

THE LIFE OF ROBERT - A VERY NAUGHTY BOY Or The Story of The Enid
http://www.enidi.org/robert-john-godf...

Mr. Lyward's Webpage http://www.finchden.com/fynn/

Mr. Lyward's Answer by Michael Burn

Reference.com http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/...

wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_G...

Reviews

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars are not enough. So I am going to take my "mirror book" and create an endlessly repeating circle of stars. Anna deserves no less.

This is a spiritual and philosophical book, but it is not tied into religion. Anna is spectacularly, terrifyingly and completely ALIVE!Every fibre of her being hums and sparks with life, feeling and imagination.

What makes me sad about reading this again after almost 30 years is the realisation that I have become so full of holes. This became obvious when the little nagging voice in my head insisted that the relationship between Fynn and Anna was odd. It's really not. Anna and Fynn loved each other. They fully trusted and believed in each other. It's a sign of how jaded I've become that I doubted the purity of that feeling for even a moment.

This book is like night-time: "It stretches your soul right out to the stars. And that...is a very long way."

[Vivian · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I began reading this I was prepared to dismiss it as a cheap attempt by "anonymous" to challenge the accepted philosophy and practices of Christianity. It begins with a teenage dock worker, Fynn, in pre-WWII London finding an abandoned four-year-old girl one night and taking her home to his mother. Over the next several years the girl, whom they call Anna, fills his life with wonder and his mind with her ideas about "Mister God". How, I wondered, could this young man have the quantity of idle time he appears to spend with this girl AND work AND study math and science AND read philosophy and classics to the extent he says he does. He has a microscope and a slide rule and he assembles a radio set. In short, he does not fit with the neighborhood he describes nor the person he professes to be.

I was sufficiently troubled about all this to execute some google searching. Searching the word "Fynn", I found: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_G...
Searching the phrase "Mister God, This is Anna", I found: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_G... but best of all this link: http://www.finchden.com/sgh/index.htm My skepticism was satisfied and I was able to read the remainder of the book with a more open mind.

There are some thoughts in the book that did not resonate with me, but much that did. In fact, so much so that I began reading aloud full chapters to various members of my family and enjoying the passages even more with each reading. Anna has the capacity to think out of the box, so to speak, because she has never been fettered with a box. Fynn is something of a child prodigy himself when it comes to all things mathematical. The combination of the two produces some amazing theories about metaphysics and Christianity.

This is by no means a sentimental, trite, or simple story, as the title might suggest to today's reader. In fact, I intend to re-read parts of it and add reference notes in my copy of the book. As a whole it is beyond amazing. It is astounding.

Post script: This story is also an exploration about a revolutionary model of the education process. Ideally, all children would be more like Anna, and perhaps they are. In which case, providing MORE time for idle wanderings, tinkering, and engaging in the scientific process combined with discussion, questioning, postulating, framing solutions by the child and extensive reading of the classics and immersion in acquired areas of interest and expertise by teens and adults with the same eagerness as the child would result in a more invigorating and effective educational process. Three cheers for Anna and Fynn!!!!!

[Rosh [busy month; will catch up soon!] · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is, by far, the most boring book I have read this year, and that's including the one book I DNFed.

So much of rambling and philosophy. I could barely stop myself yawning after every few paras. It was the sheer determination of not having another DNF so soon this year that made me complete this work.

Young Fynn (who says he's 19 years old in the book but later editions place him at 16 due to a time inconsistency with the war; the first seed of doubt was planted in my mind at this point in the book.) meets little Anna outside a shop. She seems to have run away from her place after being abused by her parents and is determined not to return. So Fynn takes her to his home. The book details out Anna's precocious intellect, her curiosity about "Mister God", and her tragic end and its aftermath on Fynn. (Not a spoiler. Her untimely death is revealed on the very first page of the book.)

The book starts off very well. The way Fynn and Anne meet, the way they chat for three hours eating hot dogs before Fynn takes her home to his mother, those initial days at his house, the way he changed his work habits for her... All very captivating. Until that point, the writing seems easy-going, realistic and quick. Later though, the focus is entirely on the Anna's observations about her "Mister God" and the conversations she has with Fynn about her interpretation of the divine and Fynn's queries about the same. There's just a little info about her interactions with others in the family or friends circle.

The relationship between Fynn and Anne is very fluid. As he himself says, "I saw myself variously as father, brother, uncle, friend." I admired their immediate connection with each other and Fynn's clear devotion for the little girl. But instead of focusing on this beautiful, short-lived relationship, Fynn decides to focus mainly on Anne's thoughts about God, and the hundred thousand questions raised in his mind by her constant musings. This is what brings the book down. The conversations between the two get very repetitive and dragged. I think I should have been much more of a religious idealist or much more of a philosopher to truly appreciate this book. Sadly, I am neither.
I don't know why I was getting the feeling that this account is partly fictionalised. Children can be precocious but this book does seem to be a stretch. So many of the conversations seem impossible for a 5-7 year old. The pessimistic part of me just doesn't let me trust this narrative to be entirely based in reality.

My copy had some illustrations too and they were more scary than cute. 😬 So, no saving grace at all. I just feel like I wasted my time on this. But I still think that this will be a good book for those who are into philosophy. I was just the wrong reader or maybe I picked it up at the wrong time in my life. Maybe when I am old and grey and searching for Mister God, I’ll give it another go.



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[Shubhangi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book changed my entire world, my entire life.
Its explanation and insight into what God is, is a completely different outlook onto a topic as old as humanity.
It has a refreshing way of describing things, but without the various pretenses that most authors seem to have. Honest writing is a really rare find nowadays but this book, despite convention, remains, even if untrue, honest.

[Ivz Andonova · Rating 1 out of 5]

Книгата ми беше препоръчана от приятел, на който тя е от любимите книги, с уговорката, че е променила перспективите му, и след като я прочетох се борих цели десет минути с дилемата, че много ми се искаше да я харесам заради него и факта, че страстно я намразих. Съжалявам, приятелю, не исках да стане така. За мен "Мистър Бог, тук е Ана" е изградена изцяло от сантиментални трикове, с които автора се опитва да я направи по-задълбочена, отколкото е всъщност. Фин е от източен Лондон и е на 19, когато открива и се запознава с Ана на улицата, води я вкъщи и за следващите три години тя става част от семейството. Просто ей, така, много ясно. Откъде идва тя не става ясно и автора не вижда смисъл да го обясни. Основното е буламача от опити за теологична философия, който пробутва чрез дидактичните разсъждения на Ана. Ана е най-ужасната Мери Сю (идеализиран и привидно перфектен образ на измислен герой, който е в центъра на вниманието и обичан от всички), която съм засичала. Авторът очевидно иска читателите да повярват, че това е "истинска история", но аз не съм чак толкова тъпа. Да се преструваш, че такова лице е реално, за да направиш философиите и убежденията си по-достоверни, е изключително смотан подход. Нелепият опит за пантеистичен универсализъм ми беше досаден и претенциозен. Да не говорим за това, че не разбирам защо читателя би се нуждаел от примери, които се повтарят постоянно. Другото нещо, което ме дразнеше постоянно беше връзката между Ана и Фин. Тя изглеждаше странна, но не в екстравагантния смисъл, а в страховития, и до края не успях да преодолея потискащото и гневно усещане, че на тия страници се случва нещо много тревожно, зловещо и ужасно. Не мисля, че е нормално пет годишно дете постоянно да се пъха голо в кревата на деветнайсет годишен младеж и да го прегръща, например. Няма да изпадам в обяснения за останалото в книгата, ще кажа само, че е претъпкана с кухи и празни твърдения, които биха докарали във възторг всички ню ейдж почитатели и фенове на Ричард Бах, Коелю, Вадим Зеланд, Анди Андрюс, Владимир Мегре и подобни. Най-грозното в "Мистър Бог, тук е Ана" е, че през цялото време се опитваха да ме убедят, че ние се опитваме да поставим Бог в кутия, за да го разберем, а всъщност правеха същото, но с друга кутия. Най-хубавото в тази книга е, че е кратка.

[Faith Spinks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so very, very beautiful. It is simple and yet profound. It is a book that I have read, re-read and re-read again and again. And I never tire of it. Every time I read it I discover some new gem. My copy of the book makes it an art to read as it is beyond the 'falling apart' stage. The pages are no longer attached and yet for me that is just a sign of how loved the book is. Loved by my parents and then passed on and loved by me.

I never met Anna, but I feel like I have, and I like her. I like her a lot! Anna was just four years old when Fynn found her wandering round London’s Docklands one foggy night in the 1930s. Badly neglected and abandoned by her parents, he took her home to be cared for by his own family. She was little and she was young but her impact by far outsized her. Nobody who met Anna remained the same: not even Bossy the cat or Patch the dog who she tamed in an instant. As Fynn said of her, "this was no casual knowing; it required total application." Anna may have been young but she was an intelligent, lively, precocious chatterbox who had an outlook on life which could completely transform your understanding of life and make you think "of course it is that simple!"

One of the things about Anna is the incredible relationship she had with 'Mister God'. Not some distant childhood vision of a god sitting on a throne up in the clouds, but in her wonderful matter of fact way she just really knew 'Mister God'. And her insights were just incredible. And as you read you find yourself, along with Fynn, learning so much. Anna's mirror book, her understanding that you can do billions of sums when you start with the answer, the way she could see everyday objects in a way which reflected her understanding of 'Mister God' are just some of the amazing aspects of Anna.

Each time I read it I feel like I come away having gleaned more than from any sermon, or from all my years at school. On this reading one of the things that struck me was the understanding that God's greatest creative act was rest. He spent 6 days sorting out the muddle that was there in the first place and then to crown it all he created rest for us. "When he finished making all things, Mister God had undone the muddle. Then you can rest, so that's why rest is the very, very biggest miracle of all." God didn't rest at the end of all that creating because he was tired. Of course not. He's God! He created rest!

Anna dies before she even reaches her eighth birthday and yet at the end of the book I put it down with a sense of feeling full, of wonder and of gratitude for the life she lived and the impact she made. "Anna's life hadn't been cut short, far from it, it had been full, completely fulfilled"

Anna’s influence continues today. Anyone reading this dips into her thought-processes, and then you can't help but fall under the wonder of her innocence, wisdom and amazing relationship with ‘Mister God’. Read it, and see what your eyes get opened to!

[Dan Glover · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book quite a while ago. It is engagingly written but it contains some very errant and very wishful thinking theology. The story centers around the relationship between a 4-7 year old girl (story takes place over 3 years) and a 16-19 year old boy who finds her on the street one night and brings her home to his mother. The girl lives with them over the next three years and the "action", in so far as it happens (and not much of it does) is basically just to give context for Fynn and Anna's conversations about life and the nature of God. Anna sees God as her mentor and personal teacher but the church and Scripture don't factor in. Anna teaches Fynn that God is in everyone and everyone is in God. As I mentioned, the book is fairly well written but the content is really just a hybrid form of pantheistic universalism. The narrative plays on your emotions all the way along until the tear-jerking finish, with Anna dying in a tragic accident (this is not a spoiler as the narrator makes you aware of this very near the beginning of the book). The book is often billed as a Christian book, but the true gospel is not presented in any way and much that runs directly contradictory to Scripture is, along with the emotional manipulation to sway you to believe it. I could not recommend this book.

[Kitap · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book recounts the friendship formed between the author and narrator Fynn (who is in his late teens or early 20s in the narrative) and a foundling named Anna in London's East End, in the 1930s. Anna, reminiscent of a character from Dickens, is a little girl who lives on the streets until she is taken in by the narrator. She has a unique perspective on life, a mystical spirituality, and a boundless curiosity that she shares with the author and the reader on every page. She occasionally (at least once per chapter) lets loose with a metaphor or pronouncement that is as deep as they come, but it is hard to imagine a real five-year old spouting these profundities with such regularity. Was she a real kid or just a figment of the author's imagination? I have no idea, but I do know that her death in the final chapter (this isn't a spoiler---Fynn tells us about her death in the first few pages) felt real enough.

I loved the characters of Fynn and Anna, yet I have mixed feelings about the book itself. It was given to me as a gift by a good friend, who in turn had it recommended to him. Both recommendations came with the suggestion that the book had substantially shifted their perspectives. Yet in reading the book, I could never shake my suspicion that the author was just using sentimental tricks to make the book seem profounder than it really was. (It felt like the same kind of emotional manipulation that I associate with the movie Forrest Gump.) Put it this way: if the wise-sounding comments had come from an adult, rather than from a small homeless child, would they still have seemed as deep?

Luckily, the book is an easy read and is readily available in almost every thrift store in the country, so you can read it for yourself and see what you think.

[Charlotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

True story of a 4-year-old found on the streets of London in the 1930's by a 19-year
old blue collar worker with a passion for math and music and all things mechanical.
The first edition included the tale of how the book's manuscript came into the hands
of the publisher and of a meeting with "Fynn," the book's author; all subsequent
editions have omitted it.
Anna had an intimate relationship with "Mister God," and searched for him in all things.
Everything and everyone in creation was evidence for Anna that God existed, that he was
a gentleman, and that he loved people in ways they could not possible comprehend. She
prayed for the gift of asking "real questions" and to avoid those which led nowhere.
Theology has been a lifelong passion for me; Anna is my favorite theologian. Her ideas
resonate with the child inside me - her fearless trust, her refusal to accept adult
explanations based on fear, her spirit afire with love of God. I have probably given
away 25 or more copies of this book; people are often daunted by the explanations in the
language of math and mechanics. I can only say look beyond; look at Anna's love; look
at the relationship between Anna and Fynn. Smile at their willingness to turn the world
upside down and see God everywhere.

[Elif Ince]

Keine Bewertung, da die Geschichte anscheinend auf wahrer Begebenheit beruht.
Ganz am Anfang steht: "Anna und Fynn haben wirklich gelebt"

[Pasha Babayev · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too religious for my callous soul.

[Sarah Kallus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anna ist wirklich ein unglaublich tolles, kleines Mädchen und so viel schlauer als die meisten Erwachsene es je sein könnten. Es war ein Highlight, dieser Maus beim Leben und Entdecken zuzuschauen und Fynn, ihren Ziehvater zu verfolgen.
Schade ist - was man von Anfang an weiß, dass Anna nicht alt wird und das sie nur ganze zwei Jahre, glaube ich, bei Fynn lebt. Sie stirbt also sehr jung.
Es ist kein allzu trauriges Buch, da man von vornherein das Ende kennt, allerdings musste ich mir dennoch am Schluss ein Tränchen verkneifen, da es wirklich ein 'schönes' Ende war. Toll beschrieben und mit einer wunderbaren Anekdote, die zum Buch passt. Wundervoll!
Die kleine Anna stellt unglaublich viele Fragen und stellt damit das Weltbild von Fynn und ihrer Umgebung gehörig auf den Kopf. Sie ist mit Mister Gott sehr verbunden und sieht in allem etwas Wunderbares. Sie entdeckt die Welt mit Kinderaugen, aber eben auch mit Augen, die viel tiefer als diese blicken. Sie sieht mehr, als jeder andere sieht und vielleicht auch mehr als man selbst je gesehen hat. Von der kleinen Anna kann jeder noch etwas lernen und auch, wenn man mit Gott und dem Christentum so gar nichts am Hut hat, wie ich beinah, dann kann man dieses Buch trotzdem lieben! Ich habe es getan und werde Anna und ihre vielen Fragen und Theorien und ihre eigene Philosophie in schönster Erinnerung behalten. Ein Buch, das man verschenken sollte, selbst lesen und stark verinnerlichen sollte. (: Ein schönes Vergnügen mit wenigen Seiten aber umso mehr Inhalt. Ob er auch nachhaltig ist, kann ich jetzt natürlich nicht beantworten, aber für den Moment war es schön und ich habe durch Anna wieder eine kindliche Lebensfreude gespürt und das tat meinem Herz sehr gut! Es war so schön ihr durch die Welt zu folgen und aus ihren Augen zu sehen. Zudem mochte ich auch Fynn sehr gerne, der die Geschichte erzählt. Bitte lest es!!
Und lasst es von dem Gott nicht zu sehr abschrecken, eigentlich spielt die Welt und wie sie läuft, sehr viel mehr eine Rolle als die Religion. Die auch, aber in einer sehr angenehmen und schönen Form. Und das sagt jemand, der damit nicht viel zu tun hat. (: Wagt euch. Es lohnt sich.

PS: Fynn und Anna haben wirklich gelebt. Fynn hieß eigentlich anders und war ein Mathematiker aus Irland.

[Viouletsa Barrio · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am Anna.
Or I thought I was, when I was 10 years old and reading that book. I also thought I had secret magic powers back then. This book helped my self esteem, I guess. I would give it a two, had I not seen myself in the protagonist. But it is really moving in many ways. And, even now, when I see the title on my bookshelf, it takes me back to an age I believed endless possibilities were lying ahead of me.

[Kathryn Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

More of a 4.5 - this book was very emotional and powerful and really makes you think! I loooved the relationship between fynn and Anna, it was just so lovely to see how this little girl affected him. It definitely makes you think and I recommend this to everyone, even if you're not religious.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I probably read this a dozen times when I was a child, and on until I started my own family. I wanted to be Fynn, and meet a child who would precociously open my eyes to the magic of the world.

[BetteRose Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book I loved, loved, loved when I first read it in the late 1970's. It is one of those books that stays with you for decades. .

The book allows us to meet Anna, a precocious child of four years. She has run away from home and makes a life with Fynn and his mum. During her short life, Anna develops a refined way of looking at almost everything around her and manages to teach twenty year old Fynn a thing or two about life. From the moment Anna refused to tell anyone where her parents lived to the moment of her death, Anna manages to control her environment and those around her, although her control is a loving, gentle control.

Anna treats Fynn with her special philosophy of church, God, sex, and numbers. The reader is taken along for this wonderful ride.

My Take:
This is a short book I want everyone to read, though there are some who will find it too simple to enjoy. I loved Anna and her many ideas. One of my favorites is when Anna realized she knew the answer to a squillion (the biggest number Anna could think of) questions. Just when Fynn thinks he is going to set her right, she proves she is already right: How much is 4 take away 1? How much is 2 plus 1? How much is 5 take away 2? By now you must have figured out we could go on all day with this line of reasoning. Indeed, Anna taught Fynn that it is the questions that are truly important. Even beyond that, it is the circumstance of the question that is important. Saying yes to the offer of a drink of water may be drastically different depending on if you are three days into the desert or just newly arrived at the restaurant.

There are some who say this child could not have just come to live with this family, It did happen in the 1930's and having little children run the streets was not unheard of. There are some who may say no child could ever do or think what Anna did but I am here to tell you, I personally know of at least one. And don't forget Mozart wrote music at this same age and played his sister's violin without being taught at this same age or younger.

I highly recommend this little treasure!

[Borum · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I read this book I kept having this image of Anna as not a little girl of five, but a tiny version of Socrates deeply emerged in a Platonic dialogue or Jesus enlightening both his ignorant enemies and followers in one of his allegorical parables.

Although the prose is relatively simple and somewhat coarse in some parts of the book and Anna's explanations are rough and terse even to the point of being abtruse, it just goes to show you that not all beauty is created by skilled and stylish techniques of trained artists and not all truth lies in fanciful and coherent arguments. Just as Jesus lied in the manger and Buddah among the ragged, sometimes the most beautiful poetry and the deepest, truest philosophy is 'in the middle' of a field of wildflowers, a child's indecipherable scribble or the silent smile of the common prostitute. In fact, this book eventually goes to demonstrate that when you're 'full' inside, you don't need to fret about what's outside or peripheral, you can concentrate on what's 'in the middle' and being 'what I am' and Mister God.

This book, of course, is not for everyone. I wouldn't recommend it to people who don't want to be turned 'inside out' and keep being confined inside the box they built around themselves. I also don't think this is a book for people who think that math is just math and physics is just physics. It is for those who vaguely suspect that 2 and 2 might not always be four and are on a lifetime search for not only answers but also for questions that landed somewhere and answers that all questions are headed for. It is also for those who long for many others that sing in the same chord yet are often confounded by the different names of the chord. It is for those who wish to be step across the borders of knowledge and senses, but be liberated with imagination, wit and compassion.

[Nadine Larter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mister God, This is Anna is a book a bout a man who finds a little girl wandering the streets, and he takes her home. This always tickles me, because: how insane! Granted it does sort of explain itself out of that hole, and the book is set in the 1930s so it is forgivable, but still, it makes me giggle. Then again, if you pulled that kind of thing today, would anyone notice? I think it's probably less likely than we expect.

Anyway, the book is ok, I suppose. I don't think you need to be a believer in God to enjoy it, you simply need to be respectful of religion, I suppose. Anna is a precocious little thing who spends her days puzzling the narrator, Fynn, with intense questions and poignant observations about the world around her. It does get a bit blahblahblah in the middle, but all-in-all it is quite a sweet story.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Out of the mouths of babes, indeed! The tale of a truly remarkable little girl and the impact of her short life. Were this a work of fiction I would have found young Anna an unbelievable character. Beyond precocious, Anna is deep and preceptive. Her observations and revelations, particularly those involving her view on Mister God, blew me away. Many times I had trouble following her line of thought and had to work my own lil' noggin in order to grasp the meaning she was trying to convey.
To modern American sensibilities the relationship between this man and the child he discovers late one night are odd, to be sure. But, that was part of the book's charm. It forced me to set aside my preconceived notions about childcare and focus instead on the content of their relationship rather than the parameters. I will definitely be checking out Fynn's further musings about Anna.

[Suki · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of two books that perfectly encapsulates my view of the world and life. Anna sees everything around her in terms of God, but not the frowning, disappointed God that so many small people use as a means of judging others. Anna's God is so big that he is practically beyond our perception of emotions, in the way that an ant cannot comprehend the vastness of the picnickers on the grass. Anna brings God down out of the subconsciously-assumed clouds of Heaven and places Him solidly in the reality of prostitutes, balloons, and music, to name just a few vessels. Her God is truly omniscient because he is truly omnipresent, seeing His creation from every possible angle. All this insight from an eight year old girl from London's East Side.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an peculiar little book. The publisher writes in the front that the story is true and the author uses the name Fynn so people will read what he has to say and not judge the man. Whether it's true or not I guess doesn't matter. This little girl's pure view of everything was a joy to read. I just got bogged down by how obscure many of the stories were. I wanted them written plainly and easy to follow and comprehend. Shouldn't Mr. God be easy to understand when explained by a little girl? My library went to great lengths to get this book for me and for that I am grateful. I am very glad I got the opportunity to experience this book, fact or fiction the reader can only decide.

[Abigail G · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a wonderful story that made me both laugh and think deeply. Many deep theological topics were touched upon in the life of Anna yet as she was merely a child they were explained with a simple understanding that made the book all the more delightful. The honesty of the writer to tell the narrative in a direct way by adding little details of thought and expression to make the reader fully understand made the story flow smoothly though there was much dialogue. I finished the book loving the child Anna and looking at myself to see if there were places in my life that needed to be uncaged from common thought patterns.

[Stefan Wit]

Mr God, this is Anna, probably moved me more than any other book I have read to date. Fynn is a subtle and masterful storyteller with a simple, highly effective prose that settles softly yet indelibly on one's soul. I read this true story over two decades ago, but still I feel the raw emotions that were revealed back then. If you can still get hold of a copy, and would enjoy discovering a beautiful, heart-rending tale about an abandoned child in post-war London, then do it now, but prepare to shed more than mere tears.

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book as a teenager and continue to re-read it as an adult.

There are certain books that make such an impression on your life that you know that you are somehow changed. What surprised me most is that a book I picked up as an 'easy read' would fall in the same category for me as To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men and I Am the Cheese.

Mister God is a book that seems to prove the quote from Mother Theresa that a single stone thrown into the water will effect many with the ripples.

[Rivka · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book shortly after it came out, when I was exploring my own teenage understanding of my relationship with the Divine. Anna's expanded understanding of G-d's "viewing places" - a multifaceted/multidimensional entity - has informed my deepest commitment to interfaith dialogue through out my adult life.

[Lenny Husen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another "Dead Girl, isn't it sad, wah, wah, wah" book. I HATED Anna. Note that I read this when I was a teenager. I found it 100% B.S. No 4 or 5 year old talks like this genius brat, except for Charles Wallace in A Wrinkle In Time (and I hated him too). NO MORE DEAD KIDS!

[hrisy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Това е книга от книгите, които променят. Всяка страница разкрива толкова много, че ти се струва, че, независимо, че си я прочел, е нужно да се връщаш и да я препрочиташ отново и отново, все пак да не си изпуснал нещо. Прекрасна е.

[Petya Kokudeva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Най-хубавото нещо, което си намерих в книгата, беше: "да си спасен не означава да си в безопасност".

[etherealfire · Rating 5 out of 5]

We read this book as a family in the late 90s/early aughts.

[Aylin Kuhls · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ein sehr schönes Kinderbuch, dass einen an die Wunder dieser Welt erinnert und die Neugier am Leben feiert. Philosophisch und augenöffnend mit genau der richtigen Mischung aus Witz und Ernsthaftigkeit erzählt.

Leider etwas eingestaubt und in seiner Zeit hängengeblieben. Man sollte daher reflektiert damit umgehen.