Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “Anastasia Again! (Anastasia Krupnik, #2)” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

Anastasia Again!

(Anastasia Krupnik #2)

Lois Lowry (Goodreads Author)

3.85 · Rating details · 3,212 ratings · 131 reviews

Twelve-year-old Anastasia Krupnik is convinced that her family's move to the suburbs will be the beginning of the end. How can she possibly accept split-level houses with matching furniture, or mothers whose biggest worry is ring around collar? But her new home brings many surprises, not to mention a cute boy who lives down the street. Is it possible that surburbia has mor

...more

Get A Copy

Paperback, 160 pages

Published October 15th 1982 by Yearling (first published 1981)

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Anastasia Again!, please sign up.

Be the first to ask a question about Anastasia Again!

Lists with This Book

Lois Lowry Novels

39 books — 73 voters

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

Young Adult Series Books published in the 80s & 90s

680 books — 566 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 3.85 ·

Rating details

· 3,212 ratings · 131 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of Anastasia Again! (Anastasia Krupnik, #2)

Dec 30, 2019 Manybooks rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: families, immigration-moving, childrens-literature, book-reviews

Yes, I have certainly found in particular main character Anastasia Krupnik’s resistance to her family moving from their urban apartment to the suburbs realistic and as such also very personally relatable (as I myself also absolutely despised and was furious with the entire concept of having to relocate, of having to move when my family immigrated from Germany to Canada when I was of a similar age as Anastasia). However and my being sympathetic towards Anastasia’s reluctance to moving notwithstan Yes, I have certainly found in particular main character Anastasia Krupnik’s resistance to her family moving from their urban apartment to the suburbs realistic and as such also very personally relatable (as I myself also absolutely despised and was furious with the entire concept of having to relocate, of having to move when my family immigrated from Germany to Canada when I was of a similar age as Anastasia). However and my being sympathetic towards Anastasia’s reluctance to moving notwithstanding, I must admit that I also have not really experienced the Anastasia from Anastasia Again with nearly as much joy and personal delight as in the first novel, as in Anastasia Krupnik.

For indeed, I have found especially the often ridiculous assumptions and conjectures which both Anastasia and indeed also her mother tend to make not only annoying to the extreme but yes, even massively infuriating, mostly because in my opinion, it is often strange and outrageous guesstimations and speculations that can and do lead to bullying and misunderstandings. And from where I stand, in Anastasia Again, author Lois Lowry basically does not really go far enough with regard to providing sufficient textual criticism of especially Anastasia’s assumptive attitudes towards the suburbs and their residents. As while of course by the end of the book, Anastasia has actually learned a bit of a lesson regarding making and perpetuating such postulations, as has her mother for that matter when she realises that Anastasia’s invited friends are not some type of gang members but just a group of delightful and interesting senior citizens whom Anastasia met downtown and bonded with, I for one definitely would want her parents not only to point out to their daughter that she is making assumptions but also showing the potential harm that can occur and indeed, to perhaps also have some disciplinary consequences that Anastasia has to perhaps even a bit painfully learn (that one cannot just mouth off and use words as weapons, that words can and do hurt and painfully so and that in particular being generalising and presumptive can definitely cause much pain, mischief and havoc).

And therefore, although generally I have indeed found Anastasia Again fun, engaging and sweetly delightful (with myself also much appreciating that Anastasia Krupnik and her family are not in any way perfect, that both the children and the parents have their foibles and peccadilloes), the fact that to and for me, Anastasia’s tendency to constantly generalise and speculate is not nearly enough narrationally criticised by Lois Lowry, this does make me lower my star rating for Anastasia Again from four to but three stars. ...more

flag 15 likes · Like · see review

Jul 24, 2011 Estelle rated it it was amazing

Shelves: young-adult, favorites, elementary-school, library-2011

If you haven't read an Anastasia book you are truly missing out. This is pre-Judy Blume, pre-Alice McKinley. What great female characters are made of. She has spunk, a good heart, she loves to write, and she wants to make sure she fits in some explicit sex in the mystery novel she is writing. (Oh, and Nancy Drew bores her because it's not subtle enough.) Her dad is a professor/poet; her mom is a painter; her brother Sam is a pip. He acts like the oldest 2-year-old I have ever met. There is also ...more

flag 11 likes · Like · see review

Nov 08, 2020 Kellie rated it really liked it

Anastasia has dramatic feelings when her parents decide to move the family from their beloved but small city apartment to a house in the suburbs. She also starts to realize that communicating with boys can be confusing. But her new home means new opportunities and new friends. This series has the rare quality of humor on the level for children and adults at the same time.

flag 7 likes · Like · see review

Apr 29, 2012 Beth Bonini rated it really liked it

Shelves: children-s-book-club

Anastasia is my contemporary (in the sense that I was about her age in 1981, when this book was published), and I can read her at 45 and think about how much I would have identified with her at 12. Reading these books makes me nostalgic for the childhood that I didn't have, if that makes sense. The big "change" (and major plot point) in this book is that Anastasia's family moves from Cambridge (where her father is an English professor at Harvard) out to the "suburbs." The beginning bit of this b ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Sep 05, 2019 Kris rated it it was amazing

Shelves: five-star-books

Anastasia is my patronus. I wanted to be Anne of Green Gables; I thought I was Margaret from Judy Blume's book, but let's be honest - I was the smart, precocious, socially awkward, immaturely mature Anastasia. I still kind of am. If I met Anastasia as her grown-up self, we would be best friends, meeting up for coffee and discussing books and being bitingly sarcastic about everything around us. We would discuss what it is like to raise little Anastasia-like creatures in a world that has Twitter a ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Jun 30, 2010 Michelle rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Anastasia moves to the 'burbs, despite all of her hysterical premature assumptions, into a house with a tower (OMG, I want a tower). I laughed a lot as Anastasia made new friends (with the entire Senior Center) and Gertrustein. I love, love, love how Lois Lowry just writes things that I wonder, Are children okay with that? Do they understand it? When Gertrustein names her new goldfish Mr. Stein and explains to Anastasia about their Brief and Unfortunate Marriage, it's incredibly funny and I wond ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Apr 14, 2020 Melinda rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Bedtime reading with Isaac. I'm not sure I ever actually read this volume in the series as a kid! Isaac laughed so hard he almost cried at several parts, the final chapter included. As with other Anastasia books, SO many bits that would be considered inappropriate today, which adds considerably to the hilarity. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Nov 22, 2008 Melody rated it really liked it

Laugh-out-loud funny. The set-ups are maybe a stretch, but Lowry finishes them off so believably that one goes along, grinning all the way. A pure delight.

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Apr 11, 2019 Linda rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: childrens

A fun book for ten to 13 year old girls to read. Anastasia is a worthy character to follow. Would recommend the series.

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Aug 22, 2017 rosamund rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: childrens

I don't know how many times I've read this book -- my copy is falling to pieces. I think I prefer this book even to the first one -- Anastasia makes me laugh so much. It's a story about family life: 12-year-old Anastasia doesn't want to leave her flat in the city to move into the suburbs, but her new home surprises her. It's a very charming book which avoids being twee by creating Anastasia who is angry and frequently unlikable though always relateable, Sam the clever and badly behaved baby brot ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jul 25, 2019 Mel Murray rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: popsugar-2019

I love Anastasia. I grew up wanting to have her parents for myself. This is an easy read and worked well for a nostalgia prompt in one of my challenges. Always enjoyable.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jan 10, 2017 Aimee Massey rated it really liked it

Shelves: young-adult, children-s, lol, still-favorites

Anastasia Krupnik is back, a little older, a little wiser, and just as opinionated and sure of herself as ever. Unfortunately, she isn't quite as grown-up as she thinks she is, and her big ideas and strong opinions sometimes cause trouble.
As the story opens, the Krupniks are getting ready to move from Cambridge, where they've lived all of Anastasia's life, to the suburbs. Anastasia is furious. She regales her parents with a laundry list of stereotypes about the suburbs and the people who live th Anastasia Krupnik is back, a little older, a little wiser, and just as opinionated and sure of herself as ever. Unfortunately, she isn't quite as grown-up as she thinks she is, and her big ideas and strong opinions sometimes cause trouble.
As the story opens, the Krupniks are getting ready to move from Cambridge, where they've lived all of Anastasia's life, to the suburbs. Anastasia is furious. She regales her parents with a laundry list of stereotypes about the suburbs and the people who live there: they will have to wear alligator shirts, own a huge color TV (the Krupniks, in the early 1980's, stil own only a small black-and-white set) Mrs. Krupnik will have to wear pink hair rollers in public, and baby brother Sam will become whiny and get slapped. Her parents, in an effort to make Anastasia feel included in the house-selection process, suggest that they all write down something they really want in a new house.
Dr. Krupnik wants a big study with a fireplace, Mrs. Krupnik wants a room with plenty of natural light to paint in, and they all decide that two-year-old Sam would like a yard to play in. Anastasia, thinking to sabotage their house hunt, says she wants a house with a tower, as she's sure they will never find such a house.
But as luck would have it, the Krupniks are shown a house with a fireplace-equipped study, a big yard, a sun-drenched room, and ... a tower bedroom. And Anastasia, much against her will, falls in love with the place.
And so the Krupniks take up residence in their dream house, and Anastasia and Sam make the acquaintance of their elderly, rather crotchety neighbor, Gertrude Stein, whom Sam immediately christens Gertrustein. Anastasia takes it upon herself to bring Gertrustein out of her self-imposed isolation, first by buying her a pet goldfish (Anastasia has her own goldfish, Frank, and is a big believer in the power of goldfish) and then by convincing her to get a perm, which Sam delightedly says makes his new friend look like his idol, Art Garfunkel.
At the same time Anastasia is adjusting to her new suburban existence, she also has a slight problem. A sort-of friend from Cambridge, the insufferably dorky Robert Giannini, has somehow gotten the idea, through an awkward conversation with Anastasia, that Sam is mentally, and perhaps physically as well, disabled. Anastasia is embarrassed, too embarrassed to step up and correct the misunderstanding, so when Robert plans to come out for a visit along with Anastasia's best friend Jenny, our heroine concocts a harebrained scheme to keep Sam hidden during the visit.
it doesn't help that Anastasia has invited a senior-citizens' club to her house for a party (letting her mother think she's invited a bunch of kids her own age) so that Gertrustein can have a social life. Controlled chaos ensues, but despite her mother's annoyance at being misled, despite Gertrustein's new Garfunkel hairdo and her reluctance to mingle, despite an embarrassing stunt pulled by Sam, everyone ends up having a blast, and Anastasia learns a valuable lesson about making premature assumptions, and about allowing others to make them out of ignorance. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Sep 17, 2014 Dione Basseri rated it liked it

Recommends it for: Lovers of Anastasia the first

Shelves: banned, reviewed, type-prose, genre-childrens, genre-realistic

After reading the original Anastasia book, I had fairly high expectations for this sequel, and while the book wasn't entirely unenjoyable, it certainly fell short of the original.

Now a few years older, Anastasia, her parents, and her little brother, Sam, are a bit cramped in their apartment. Despite some misgivings on Anastasia's part (relating to her idea of what suburbs people act like), they buy a house and relocate. Which, of course, means taking Anastasia away from her few friends.

This book ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Sep 01, 2008 Swankivy rated it really liked it

I loved the Anastasia books as a young girl and really appreciated Ms. Lowry's distinct writing style. Everyone's a bit too clever with their dialogue sometimes, but I related to Anastasia as a slightly bookish but similarly naïve girl who wants to be a writer.

This is one of my favorite books about Anastasia, in which she deals with her issues surrounding having to move to the suburbs. Her assumptions about the move are dashed when she DOES manage to fall in love with the house, meet the neighb ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Aug 23, 2014 SamZ rated it liked it

Anastasia's world is about to be turned upside down. Her parents are doing the worst thing imaginable: they're moving. To the suburbs!
Once again Anastasia returns with her moody, realistic view of the world and discovers that things aren't necessarily as bad as you can imagine them to be. I continue to enjoy the Anastasia books, because I love the family dynamics. Both parents are available and interested without catering to their kids' every whim. I also really enjoy the way Lowry writes kids t ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jan 12, 2016 Karen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: includes-review, 2016

I don't remember reading the Anastasia series when I was in my teens, but I decided to give this a try upon my 9-year-old's recommendation. I am glad I did. The lines are whipsmart and funny; there is a reasonably eventful plot; and I found Anastasia a likeable character (though a bit opinionated - the curse of the precocious!?). The story of Anastasia learning to accept life changes (in this case, moving from the house she has lived in all her life) is still fresh and relevant. I am glad this i ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Mar 27, 2014 Katt Hansen rated it really liked it

Shelves: kids, coming-of-age

Anastasia is back, and having to move to the suburbs from the city. Again I love her, and find myself thinking that while I read these books when I was a child, I didn't gain the true appreciation for them until I was an adult. Back when I was young, this was just another story about moving and making new friends. Here I am seeing the delight in her interaction with her parents, her intelligence for her age, and also how very much a child she still is sometimes. I'm very glad I've gone back to t ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Feb 18, 2015 Juliette Simpson added it · review of another edition

Anastasia Again! by Lois Lowry is a funny book about a girl named Anastasia Krupnik.

Anastasia is horrified when she finds out her family is moving to the suburbs! Anastasia whines about how terrible it is there and she won't agree to move there. Then the day to move comes. Anastasia says good bye to friends, and boys. When she arrives, she is horrified at her reaction. Maybe the suburbs won't be so bad after all.

I really liked this book. It only took me two days and I could read it again. I re ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Aug 22, 2011 Melissa rated it really liked it

Shelves: favorite-authors, tweens

Someone in a class recommended this series due to my love of the Ramona titles, and I can see why. Like Ramona, Anastasia's a character to whom young girls of that age can relate; she's navigating the same concerns that many her age have. By reading about her struggles, kids learn how to deal with their own.

The Krupniks are moving to the suburbs, so she's getting used to a new place, finding new friends, missing old friends. There's humor, intelligence, and just a hint of tween drama. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Aug 12, 2009 Alex rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-loved-when-i-was-younger

Man, I am absolutely loving re-reading this amazing series. There’s a few things in this one that would definitely not be PC in our day and age now, but these books are still sooo good.

Also, I’m still incredibly jealous of Anastasia’s tower room, and the line “Mozart was still dead” still makes me giggle.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jul 12, 2013 Lindsaygail rated it it was amazing

Shelves: children, funny

Re-reading the whole Anastasia series as an adult is SO much fun. They hold up really well, and are just as funny as I remember them being when I was little. Also the Krupniks are my favorite fictional parents of all time.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Mar 29, 2008 Kirsten rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-pre-12-07, own

The Anastasia books are always excellent!

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jul 08, 2011 Jenne rated it really liked it

Shelves: jf

"And Mozart was still dead."
...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Oct 16, 2012 cubbie rated it it was amazing

Gertrude Stein! Kool-Aid for senior citizens! "The Mystery of Saying Goodby!" Leprosy! Flashing!

A true classic. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Oct 16, 2015 Kaitlyn rated it it was amazing

Rereading the Anastasia books as an adult is so much fun!

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Dec 31, 2015 Madeleine rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

So nice to revist an old favorite that hasn't had its pop culture references updated. Heh, Walter Cronkite. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jan 16, 2019 Maddie added it

The book is narrated by Anastasia who is the main character. She talked about in first person and was a reliable source because of the information she gave. The book is set in modern time period and takes place mainly in the suburbs.
The setting influenced the plot of the book by making everything clear as to what was happening. When her parents tell her the bad news about moving to the suburbs, Anastasia begins to think all these bad things shes heard about the suburbs.
The genre of the book is ...more

flag Like · see review

Mar 14, 2020 Shelleyc rated it it was amazing

Shelves: bedtime-read-w-mercy

Written by my daughter: Anastasia Krupnik is 12 years old and is doing pretty well considering the fact that she has a painter for a mother, a poet for a father, and a “weird” , smart, and irritating two-year-old for a little brother. Her life is going good, and she feels pretty good about herself, too, even though the jerk, Robert Giannini, seems to suddenly like her, and her brother flushed her pet goldfish down the toilet. But, will Anastasia’s life keep going on like this? Well, like in any ...more

flag Like · see review

Dec 06, 2020 Erin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: humor, mid-elementary, series, girl-main-character, realistic-fiction, fiction, friendship, tween, ebook, re-readable

Deep in a nostalgic reading binge, I had forgotten how much I loved Anastasia. Her adorable baby brother who makes new friends and becomes a flasher (Flash!), her quirky but down-to-earth parents who use big words and don’t shy away from difficult topics, and Anastasia herself who is smart and curious and bold but still baffled by the weird world and irritated by childhood and adolescent realities.

I laughed until I cried.

flag Like · see review

Aug 22, 2017 Darlene rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Childhood re-reads continue. This is the one I remember the most from the Anastasia series. I certainly have memories of feeling envious of her tower bedroom! I love how she gets herself into ridiculous situations, and also all the slightly angsty pre-teen drama that gets turned up a bit with this second book. Pretty cute stuff!

flag Like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend It | Stats | Recent Status Updates

Readers also enjoyed

See similar books…

Genres

Childrens

67 users

Fiction

48 users

Young Adult

42 users

Childrens > Middle Grade

36 users

Humor

16 users

Childrens > Juvenile

11 users

Realistic Fiction

10 users

Literature > Banned Books

6 users

Classics

5 users

Novels

5 users

See top shelves…

About Lois Lowry

Lois Lowry

18,508 followers

Taken from Lowry's website:
"I’ve always felt that I was fortunate to have been born the middle child of three. My older sister, Helen, was very much like our mother: gentle, family-oriented, eager to please. Little brother Jon was the only boy and had interests that he shared with Dad; together they were always working on electric trains and erector sets; and later, when Jon was older, they always Taken from Lowry's website:
"I’ve always felt that I was fortunate to have been born the middle child of three. My older sister, Helen, was very much like our mother: gentle, family-oriented, eager to please. Little brother Jon was the only boy and had interests that he shared with Dad; together they were always working on electric trains and erector sets; and later, when Jon was older, they always seemed to have their heads under the raised hood of a car. That left me in-between, and exactly where I wanted most to be: on my own. I was a solitary child who lived in the world of books and my own vivid imagination.

Because my father was a career military officer - an Army dentist - I lived all over the world. I was born in Hawaii, moved from there to New York, spent the years of World War II in my mother’s hometown: Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and from there went to Tokyo when I was eleven. High school was back in New York City, but by the time I went to college (Brown University in Rhode Island), my family was living in Washington, D.C.

I married young. I had just turned nineteen - just finished my sophomore year in college - when I married a Naval officer and continued the odyssey that military life requires. California. Connecticut (a daughter born there). Florida (a son). South Carolina. Finally Cambridge, Massachusetts, when my husband left the service and entered Harvard Law School (another daughter; another son) and then to Maine - by now with four children under the age of five in tow. My children grew up in Maine. So did I. I returned to college at the University of Southern Maine, got my degree, went to graduate school, and finally began to write professionally, the thing I had dreamed of doing since those childhood years when I had endlessly scribbled stories and poems in notebooks.

After my marriage ended in 1977, when I was forty, I settled into the life I have lived ever since. Today I am back in Cambridge, Massachusetts, living and writing in a house dominated by a very shaggy Tibetan Terrier named Bandit. For a change of scenery Martin and I spend time in Maine, where we have an old (it was built in 1768!) farmhouse on top of a hill. In Maine I garden, feed birds, entertain friends, and read...

My books have varied in content and style. Yet it seems that all of them deal, essentially, with the same general theme: the importance of human connections. A Summer to Die, my first book, was a highly fictionalized retelling of the early death of my sister, and of the effect of such a loss on a family. Number the Stars, set in a different culture and era, tells the same story: that of the role that we humans play in the lives of our fellow beings.

The Giver - and Gathering Blue, and the newest in the trilogy: Messenger - take place against the background of very different cultures and times. Though all three are broader in scope than my earlier books, they nonetheless speak to the same concern: the vital need of people to be aware of their interdependence, not only with each other, but with the world and its environment.

My older son was a fighter pilot in the United States Air Force. His death in the cockpit of a warplane tore away a piece of my world. But it left me, too, with a wish to honor him by joining the many others trying to find a way to end conflict on this very fragile earth.
I am a grandmother now. For my own grandchildren - and for all those of their generation - I try, through writing, to convey my passionate awareness that we live intertwined on this planet and that our future depends upon our caring more, and doing more, for one another." ...more