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Anastasia Krupnik #2
Anastasia Again!
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 more to offer than Anastasia had expected?
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
97 people are currently reading
848 people want to read
About the author
Lois Lowry
168 books22.6k followersTaken 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."
"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."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 174 reviews
April 27, 2022
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.
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.
February 9, 2017
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 the added pleasure of reading an early 80s novel where it was okay for kids to drink the foam off their dad's beer. It's sort of liberal, hippy and even more entertaining. Lois Lowry rules. I hope I have a kid just like Anastasia, and I raise her to be an intelligent, creative girl who speaks her mind. No matter how over-the-top it is. (I also hope I don't lose that in myself.)
April 29, 2012
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 book, in which Anastasia makes all sorts of assumptions about what the suburbs are going to be like and how the Krupnik family will NOT fit in there, captures everything that is witty and charming about this family (and Lowry's writing). When the family sits down to make a list about what they want in their new house -- mother wants a studio with good light, father wants a study and lots of bookshelves, Anastasia wants a tower -- I felt that they were describing my spiritual home. I love the little details: how Anastasia and her father leave little messages of "ownership" in their old home, and how they discover a similar sort of thing under the layers of wallpaper in Anastasia's new bedroom.
Lowry has often written about the importance of human connections -- and how she tries to emphasize or highlight the interconnectedness of us all in her writing. In this book, Anastasia's relationship with an elderly (and terribly lonely) neighbour is the "developing empathy" bit. The party at the end of the book, in which senior citizens, old friends and a new potential boyfriend all get together to drink Kool-aid and dance and chat is sweet and quirky. These books describe the sort of world that I want to live in, but they aren't "romances;" they are the best sort of realistic fiction.
Lowry has often written about the importance of human connections -- and how she tries to emphasize or highlight the interconnectedness of us all in her writing. In this book, Anastasia's relationship with an elderly (and terribly lonely) neighbour is the "developing empathy" bit. The party at the end of the book, in which senior citizens, old friends and a new potential boyfriend all get together to drink Kool-aid and dance and chat is sweet and quirky. These books describe the sort of world that I want to live in, but they aren't "romances;" they are the best sort of realistic fiction.
August 1, 2021
If you’re a parent or an adult, you’ll find this pretty entertaining - children can be so hilariously quirky! Especially when they’re trying to come off as adults and just don’t quite get everything.
If you’re a kid, this book needs to be edited or read aloud so that the mature content can be filtered.
Cleanliness: not a complete list but mentions sex, nudes, porn, drugs, drinking. The word “d*mn is used.
Will come back later to write an actual report.
If you’re a kid, this book needs to be edited or read aloud so that the mature content can be filtered.
Cleanliness: not a complete list but mentions sex, nudes, porn, drugs, drinking. The word “d*mn is used.
Will come back later to write an actual report.
November 8, 2020
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.
September 7, 2019
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 and the 12-year olds look like we did when we were 17. We still wouldn't have a clue, but we would both fake it super well.
July 21, 2010
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 wonder if I'm allowed to talk to children like that (I don't think that I am, but I would love to anyway). I also adore Anastasia's parents. How nice is it that Anastasia's mother makes her feel better about the whole people-think-Sam-is-deformed situation? Oh, Anastasia, I magically want to grow up to be a 12-year-old like you.
May 10, 2022
I cannot quite put my finger on what it is I like so much about Anastasia, but I do enjoy this character. I am quite jealous of the home her family found in the suburbs, it is every kid's dream to have a bedroom in a tower! I appreciate the effort Anastasia put in to ensure that the people she loves in her life are not lonely or forgotten.
Quotes:
"For some reason, when you had done something stupid, it always made you feel better to hear about stupid things that other people had done."
"Anastasia had already been to the small library. It was one of the first things she had done after they moved, finding the library and getting a library card. At this new library, they didn't know here at all, at least not yet, which was a little depressing. But they would."
Quotes:
"For some reason, when you had done something stupid, it always made you feel better to hear about stupid things that other people had done."
"Anastasia had already been to the small library. It was one of the first things she had done after they moved, finding the library and getting a library card. At this new library, they didn't know here at all, at least not yet, which was a little depressing. But they would."
January 10, 2022
Laugh out loud funny story about precocious Anastasia and her family. They move from the city to the suburbs, and Anastasia is horrified by her "preconceived assumptions" ( a running theme) of suburban life. Of course, she learns that not everything is terrible.
Definitely preteen, not ya.
Definitely preteen, not ya.
July 4, 2022
Le plaisir est renouvelé avec chaque nouveau tome.. Je ne suis pas sûre de pouvoir attendre que ma fille grandisse un peu pour découvrir la suite.
Je vais lire les autres tomes en cachette.
Un vrai roman jeunesse intelligent et drôle ! J'adore d'autant plus qu'il y a ce côté vintage inimitable.
Ma fille de 7 ans qui découvre en 2022 que la télé avant était en noir et blanc et que les ados n'avaient pas de téléphone portable ! Vive Lois Lowry ! ❤️
Je vais lire les autres tomes en cachette.
Un vrai roman jeunesse intelligent et drôle ! J'adore d'autant plus qu'il y a ce côté vintage inimitable.
Ma fille de 7 ans qui découvre en 2022 que la télé avant était en noir et blanc et que les ados n'avaient pas de téléphone portable ! Vive Lois Lowry ! ❤️
December 28, 2016
This review also appears on my blog, Read-at-Home Mom.
In this second novel about Anastasia, the Krupnik family decides to move to the suburbs. Anastasia is against the idea based on her preconceived notions about suburban life, but even she can’t object when her parents find the perfect house. Once they move in, Anastasia and her brother, Sam, now a toddler, befriend Gertrude Stein, their elderly next door neighbor, whom Anastasia desperately wants to help make new friends and break out of her shell. Anastasia also deals with her complicated feelings for a boy in her old neighborhood, who has gotten the mistaken impression that Anastasia’s little brother is physically disabled.
There is so much to like about Lois Lowry’s writing. Her dialogue reads like real conversation. Her characters have delightful quirks and flaws. She manages to understand exactly what it’s like to be an awkward twelve-year-old, but she makes it fun and not painful to read about the experience. I think what I especially like about this book is how the entire storyline is firmly grounded in family life. Contemporary middle grade fiction being published right now seems to focus more on school and friends than on family, so it’s refreshing when I read about a character whose parents are such an important part of her life, even if that character’s stories were published before I was born.
I had some questions about the authenticity of Sam’s verbal skills and even his thought processes, since he doesn’t seem like a typical two-year-old. Still, I was mostly able to buy that he was just an advanced child, because of the highly intellectual environment in which he is being raised. Also related to Sam, I appreciated that Lowry jumped ahead in time between the first and second books of this series, so that he was no longer an infant at the start of this book. I think Anastasia’s relationship to him is very interesting, and it might not have been so if there were several books where all Sam did was sleep and have his diaper changed. It’s also nice to see that Anastasia mostly likes her brother, but that there are also realistic moments of disgust with some of his toddler behaviors.
Anastasia Again! does a lovely job of exploring the family’s move to the suburbs and of highlighting the relationships young people can develop with their elderly neighbors. The dynamic between Anastasia and Gertrude Stein is much more interesting than the superficial dynamics between middle school kids that turn up in so many books, and both characters stuck with me long after I finished the story.
In this second novel about Anastasia, the Krupnik family decides to move to the suburbs. Anastasia is against the idea based on her preconceived notions about suburban life, but even she can’t object when her parents find the perfect house. Once they move in, Anastasia and her brother, Sam, now a toddler, befriend Gertrude Stein, their elderly next door neighbor, whom Anastasia desperately wants to help make new friends and break out of her shell. Anastasia also deals with her complicated feelings for a boy in her old neighborhood, who has gotten the mistaken impression that Anastasia’s little brother is physically disabled.
There is so much to like about Lois Lowry’s writing. Her dialogue reads like real conversation. Her characters have delightful quirks and flaws. She manages to understand exactly what it’s like to be an awkward twelve-year-old, but she makes it fun and not painful to read about the experience. I think what I especially like about this book is how the entire storyline is firmly grounded in family life. Contemporary middle grade fiction being published right now seems to focus more on school and friends than on family, so it’s refreshing when I read about a character whose parents are such an important part of her life, even if that character’s stories were published before I was born.
I had some questions about the authenticity of Sam’s verbal skills and even his thought processes, since he doesn’t seem like a typical two-year-old. Still, I was mostly able to buy that he was just an advanced child, because of the highly intellectual environment in which he is being raised. Also related to Sam, I appreciated that Lowry jumped ahead in time between the first and second books of this series, so that he was no longer an infant at the start of this book. I think Anastasia’s relationship to him is very interesting, and it might not have been so if there were several books where all Sam did was sleep and have his diaper changed. It’s also nice to see that Anastasia mostly likes her brother, but that there are also realistic moments of disgust with some of his toddler behaviors.
Anastasia Again! does a lovely job of exploring the family’s move to the suburbs and of highlighting the relationships young people can develop with their elderly neighbors. The dynamic between Anastasia and Gertrude Stein is much more interesting than the superficial dynamics between middle school kids that turn up in so many books, and both characters stuck with me long after I finished the story.
October 7, 2015
Lois Lowryn "Anastasia vauhdissa" (Otava, 1988) on Anastasia Krupnikista kertovan kirjasarjan toinen osa. Krupnikit ovat muuttamassa. Uusi asunto sijaitsee lähiössä, mikä on jo ajatuksena kauhistuttava. Mutta entäs kun uudessa talossa on tornihuone? Ja millainen mahtaa olla naapurissa asuva vanha rouva, joka näyttää Einsteinin tavoin puhuvan pikkuveljen mukaan noita-akalta?
Suuria ei romaanissa tapahdu, mutta siitä huolimatta kirja imaisee hienosti mukaansa. Anastasia on valloittava päähenkilö, joka pohdiskelee elämää hieman pikkuvanhaan tapaansa. Teini-iän kynnyksellä oman vartalon kehittyminen mietityttää (haluaako kukaan koskaan mennä naimisiin sellaisen kanssa, josta tulee ainakin kaksi metriä pitkä?) ja pojatkin herättävät ristiriitaisia tuntemuksia.
Lowry kirjoittaa eleettömän humoristisesti, yrittämättä olla pakottavan hah-hah-hauska: erityisesti pidin kohtauksesta, jossa Anastasia muistelee kuinka vastasi omatoimisesti runoilijaisälle osoitettuihin fanikirjeisiin.
Nopea nettisurffailu osoitti, että Yhdysvalloissa kirja on joutunut kirjastosensorien hampaisiin: liikaa ovat olleet viittaukset Playboy-lehteen, oluen juomiseen ja Anastasian tokaisuun, jossa hän ilmoittaa mieluummin tappavansa itsensä hyppäämällä ikkunasta kuin muuttavansa uuteen asuntoon. Kaikenlaista.
Suuria ei romaanissa tapahdu, mutta siitä huolimatta kirja imaisee hienosti mukaansa. Anastasia on valloittava päähenkilö, joka pohdiskelee elämää hieman pikkuvanhaan tapaansa. Teini-iän kynnyksellä oman vartalon kehittyminen mietityttää (haluaako kukaan koskaan mennä naimisiin sellaisen kanssa, josta tulee ainakin kaksi metriä pitkä?) ja pojatkin herättävät ristiriitaisia tuntemuksia.
Lowry kirjoittaa eleettömän humoristisesti, yrittämättä olla pakottavan hah-hah-hauska: erityisesti pidin kohtauksesta, jossa Anastasia muistelee kuinka vastasi omatoimisesti runoilijaisälle osoitettuihin fanikirjeisiin.
Nopea nettisurffailu osoitti, että Yhdysvalloissa kirja on joutunut kirjastosensorien hampaisiin: liikaa ovat olleet viittaukset Playboy-lehteen, oluen juomiseen ja Anastasian tokaisuun, jossa hän ilmoittaa mieluummin tappavansa itsensä hyppäämällä ikkunasta kuin muuttavansa uuteen asuntoon. Kaikenlaista.
October 13, 2014
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 these books after all this time.
April 14, 2020
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.
November 22, 2008
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.
April 12, 2019
A fun book for ten to 13 year old girls to read. Anastasia is a worthy character to follow. Would recommend the series.
May 1, 2023
korjasin selle tasuta raamatute kapist üles puhtalt autori nime järgi, sest Lois Lowry on meile (või noh, tehniliselt vist lastele) kirjutanud väga hea düstoopiasarja ("Andja" ja siis sealt edasi) ja mul oli suur uudishimu selle osas, mida ta oma elus veel teinud on. poleks osanud arvata, et kirjutanud õhukesi pehmekaanelisi kaheksakümnendate tüdrukuteraamatuid, aga sedasorti üllatuste vastu pole mul kunagi midagi.
lugu ei valmistanud pettumust, sest nii 12-aastane Anastasia kui tema paariaastane väikevend on erakordselt varaküpsed lapsed ja siin on väga meeleolukaid dialooge nii laste endi kui laste ja täiskasvanute vahel. kogu tooni paneb paika juba esimene lehekülg, kus Anastasia teatab, et ta hüppab kohe pärast magustoiduga lõpetamist aknast alla (sest talle on teatatud perekonna kolimisplaanist ja on vaja olla dramaatiline), ja ema meenutab talle, et nad elavad esimesel korrusel ja et Anastasia on kolmeaastasest peale põhiliselt selle akna kaudu sisse-välja käinudki, nii et see pole suurem asi ähvardus.
perekond (inglise kirjanduse professorist isa, kunstnikust ema, eelnimetatud lapsukesed) kolibki Cambridge'ist Bostoni äärelinna ja Anastasial tuleb ära hallata uute sõprade leidmine ja vanadest eemaldumise valuline protsess, kui samal ajal kipuvad vinnid näkku tulema ja juuksed on rasvased. kui siin viimasel ajal on Lottie Brooksi raamatuid palju loetud, siis vot midagi sinnakanti, aga on 80ndad - kinos näidatakse "Casablancat", Anastasial lubatakse isa õllelt vahtu rüübata, kaheaastane väikevend jalutab ise üle tee naabrinaise juurde päevaks hoida. jube värskendav :)
nalja siin ikka saab ja lõpupeatükis kulmineerub raamat sellise peoga, kus oleks isegi tahtnud kohal olla (esindatud on nii erineva taustaga teismelised kui kohalik pensionäride klubi, ja küik asjassepuutuvad lapsevanemad haldavad olukorra silma pilgutamata ära). kui kuskil veel Anastasia-sarja raamatuid silma jääb, loen neid ka kindlasti!
lugu ei valmistanud pettumust, sest nii 12-aastane Anastasia kui tema paariaastane väikevend on erakordselt varaküpsed lapsed ja siin on väga meeleolukaid dialooge nii laste endi kui laste ja täiskasvanute vahel. kogu tooni paneb paika juba esimene lehekülg, kus Anastasia teatab, et ta hüppab kohe pärast magustoiduga lõpetamist aknast alla (sest talle on teatatud perekonna kolimisplaanist ja on vaja olla dramaatiline), ja ema meenutab talle, et nad elavad esimesel korrusel ja et Anastasia on kolmeaastasest peale põhiliselt selle akna kaudu sisse-välja käinudki, nii et see pole suurem asi ähvardus.
perekond (inglise kirjanduse professorist isa, kunstnikust ema, eelnimetatud lapsukesed) kolibki Cambridge'ist Bostoni äärelinna ja Anastasial tuleb ära hallata uute sõprade leidmine ja vanadest eemaldumise valuline protsess, kui samal ajal kipuvad vinnid näkku tulema ja juuksed on rasvased. kui siin viimasel ajal on Lottie Brooksi raamatuid palju loetud, siis vot midagi sinnakanti, aga on 80ndad - kinos näidatakse "Casablancat", Anastasial lubatakse isa õllelt vahtu rüübata, kaheaastane väikevend jalutab ise üle tee naabrinaise juurde päevaks hoida. jube värskendav :)
nalja siin ikka saab ja lõpupeatükis kulmineerub raamat sellise peoga, kus oleks isegi tahtnud kohal olla (esindatud on nii erineva taustaga teismelised kui kohalik pensionäride klubi, ja küik asjassepuutuvad lapsevanemad haldavad olukorra silma pilgutamata ära). kui kuskil veel Anastasia-sarja raamatuid silma jääb, loen neid ka kindlasti!
August 22, 2017
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 brother, and a cast of well-meaning and well-fleshed out adults. This is an idyllic family life -- but it's also hilarious, and believable.
August 4, 2021
Anastasia, di nuovo! è un libricino per ragazzi con una storia molto semplice, ma quello che cattura sono i personaggi! Così particolari e unici, non solo la protagonista, ma tutti: ognuno di loro ha un carattere ben definito già in poche pagine e come ho detto non potrete che amarli.
Recensione: https://laspacciatricedilibri.blogspo...
Recensione: https://laspacciatricedilibri.blogspo...
July 10, 2025
Still fun. I’m enjoying breezing through these books between other reading. I will say, as charming as the interactions between the Krupniks are, I wish they shared more affection. Anastasia’s parents treat her with a lot of trust and tolerance, but they never hug her! They never comfort her! Or say I love you!
March 4, 2022
I loved so many things about this book that I had forgotten about. It has been awhile since I read it. I loved Anastasia’s assumption of what the suburbs were like and I loved meeting her not-a-witch next door neighbor. Anastasia is the kind of outgoing, intelligent, mistake making girl that I can really admire. Throw in a terrific set of parents and a curly headed prodigy baby brother and you have a wonderful story.
August 13, 2024
Gawd I love Lois Lowry. Still laugh out loud funny to me 30+ years later. This must have been one of the series I discovered at the old DeeGees at the beach. Plenty of Sweet Valley High there, too. But definitely Anastasia. Unless Anastasia came through the Arrow Book Club.
July 25, 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.
May 16, 2024
A funny sequel. I love Anastasia's thinking.
November 4, 2021
I absolutely adore Anastasia Krupnik. She's smart, spunky, quirky, and kind. I wish I had read this series as a kid, but I'm very happy to have found it now.
January 10, 2017
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.
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.
November 23, 2021
So...although Anastasia's moodiness is realistic for a twelve-year-old, and I can see why her sarcasm is meant to be humorous to the reader, I couldn't always laugh because even after enjoying Book One, I still don't dig how smart-alecky Anastasia is with her parents, and I couldn't find her too likable through the attitude.
Maybe the frequent uses of "good grief" and "for pete's sake" are also supposed to be funny, but the repetition got old to me after the first several times.
Also, the little account about a little girl's dad (not Anastasia or Anastasia's dad) making a movie where the little girl and her little friend (also not Anastasia) "had to run on the beach with no clothes on while he [the dad] took movies," and the moviemaker dad (of course) didn't tell his little daughter's little friend's parents he was going to do that, and Anastasia now giggles at the account about the other two girls, telling one of them, "It wasn't porno or anything, though. You were only seven years old, for pete's sake."
Um...what?
Not only is it not giggle-worthy, but children need to know before the age of seven how to recognize what kind of adult behavior toward children isn't okay, and a lot of children reading a novel like this would be younger than twelve.
No, it is NOT funny or okay for a man to tell his little girl and her friend to take off their clothes. (I mean, if the girls are out playing and they fall in mud or something, and the dad sends them up to his daughter's room to change clothes in private, fine. But this was obviously a whole 'nother situation.) Filming the girls and not telling one of the girl's parents about the "beach scene" is equally NOT okay, and it certainly isn't choice fodder for smirks or giggles in children's fiction.
I skipped ahead to the end to see Anastasia's attempt at novel writing, how she wants her story to be "sexy," but she isn't satisfied because she feels the story needs more "explicit sex" than the evil male character wearing nothing but a trench coat, walking around and flashing people.
(*Facepalm*)
I don't remember how far I got into this book when I was a kid, though I vaguely remember I didn't enjoy it as much as the first book. And now at my attempt to reread it as an adult, I see it hasn't aged well.
I normally don't add ratings to my reviews of books I didn't finish. But there it is.
I might revisit at least one more book in the series, one with an older adolescent Anastasia, because I remember liking it. I'm not feeling as excited about it as I did when I first decided to revisit this series, though.
Maybe the frequent uses of "good grief" and "for pete's sake" are also supposed to be funny, but the repetition got old to me after the first several times.
Also, the little account about a little girl's dad (not Anastasia or Anastasia's dad) making a movie where the little girl and her little friend (also not Anastasia) "had to run on the beach with no clothes on while he [the dad] took movies," and the moviemaker dad (of course) didn't tell his little daughter's little friend's parents he was going to do that, and Anastasia now giggles at the account about the other two girls, telling one of them, "It wasn't porno or anything, though. You were only seven years old, for pete's sake."
Um...what?
Not only is it not giggle-worthy, but children need to know before the age of seven how to recognize what kind of adult behavior toward children isn't okay, and a lot of children reading a novel like this would be younger than twelve.
No, it is NOT funny or okay for a man to tell his little girl and her friend to take off their clothes. (I mean, if the girls are out playing and they fall in mud or something, and the dad sends them up to his daughter's room to change clothes in private, fine. But this was obviously a whole 'nother situation.) Filming the girls and not telling one of the girl's parents about the "beach scene" is equally NOT okay, and it certainly isn't choice fodder for smirks or giggles in children's fiction.
I skipped ahead to the end to see Anastasia's attempt at novel writing, how she wants her story to be "sexy," but she isn't satisfied because she feels the story needs more "explicit sex" than the evil male character wearing nothing but a trench coat, walking around and flashing people.
(*Facepalm*)
I don't remember how far I got into this book when I was a kid, though I vaguely remember I didn't enjoy it as much as the first book. And now at my attempt to reread it as an adult, I see it hasn't aged well.
I normally don't add ratings to my reviews of books I didn't finish. But there it is.
I might revisit at least one more book in the series, one with an older adolescent Anastasia, because I remember liking it. I'm not feeling as excited about it as I did when I first decided to revisit this series, though.
November 6, 2015
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 is kept from typical early chapter book moving angst by the addition of a crotchety neighbor, Gertrude Stein, who has been a virtual shut-in since her failed romance with her childhood neighbor and since her husband ran off many years before. Anastasia make Gertrude her project, forcing her out of her comfort zone and back into society, while at the same time the simple passage of time does the same to Anastasia, who begins to meet neighbors her age.
If your child finished the first Anastasia book and is still interested in her life, then the entire Anastasia series will be a great boon. However, while I had made plans to read the entire series myself, I think I've seen enough to pass on the rest. They aren't bad. They're just really meant for smaller kids.
Lois Lowry writes plenty of other books with an appeal for all ages ("The Giver" being the obvious example), but this book is probably best left to the kids for which it was written.
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 is kept from typical early chapter book moving angst by the addition of a crotchety neighbor, Gertrude Stein, who has been a virtual shut-in since her failed romance with her childhood neighbor and since her husband ran off many years before. Anastasia make Gertrude her project, forcing her out of her comfort zone and back into society, while at the same time the simple passage of time does the same to Anastasia, who begins to meet neighbors her age.
If your child finished the first Anastasia book and is still interested in her life, then the entire Anastasia series will be a great boon. However, while I had made plans to read the entire series myself, I think I've seen enough to pass on the rest. They aren't bad. They're just really meant for smaller kids.
Lois Lowry writes plenty of other books with an appeal for all ages ("The Giver" being the obvious example), but this book is probably best left to the kids for which it was written.
December 5, 2021
So frustrating that this could be a decent book and Anastasia a likable character if it were written differently. What I said for my review of the first book in the series applies here as well but even more: parents curse and have a very laissez faire attitude to child raising, allowing beer foam drinking, smoking, and sex reading in books as the way to raise kids to not do those things. Huh?? Two little girls are filmed for a porn movie and it's treated lightly in a joking manner (not by the one girl's father.) But since this will probably be read by your 10yo girl, watch out!! This is not okay!! Lots of talk about sex, not what it is, just the word used often. Talk about boy-girl relationships at 12. Bad attitudes toward authority, and the list of objectionable content goes on. Good idea, too many inappropriate lines.
September 2, 2008
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 neighbors, and get involved in local affairs. What I really loved was her attachment to her old house and the character of her little brother.
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 neighbors, and get involved in local affairs. What I really loved was her attachment to her old house and the character of her little brother.
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