Anastasia Krupnik (An Anastasia Krupnik story)

Good read for granddaughter who has younger brother she considers a pest.

From my 10-year-old: This book was hilarious and sweet. I definetely recommend it.

For readers only familiar with Lowry’s sf dystopia Giver Quartet or Number the Stars, her historical WWII novel dealing with a Danish family helping Jews escape to Sweden, her earlier novel Anastasia Krupnick (1979) may come as a surprise. It takes place in contemporary America (the Boston area), is replete with American cultural references like Cosmopolitan, the Red Sox, the Celtics, Lord and Taylor’s, and Snoopy (some of which, like Groucho Marx, most kids today probably wouldn’t get), is mostly humorous in tone (though there is also a deep sadness that surfaces vis-à-vis aging and loss and memory), and has no suspenseful plot. Instead, the novel depicts the daily trials and tribulations and triumphs of a precocious, “mercurial” ten-year-old girl, Anastasia Krupnik, which she writes about in her green notebook, along with her ever-changing lists of “Things I Love!” and “Things I Hate!”Each chapter is a mostly self-contained mini-story that combines with the others to make a composite novel. They concern things like discovering a new wart, falling in and out of love, working hard on a poem she receives an F for, deciding (briefly) to become a Catholic, coming to terms with her unusual name, spending Thanksgiving with her parents and her 92-year-old grandmother, asking her parents about their past love affairs, learning that she’s going to get a little brother, visiting one of her university professor father’s literature classes, and ultimately having to start coming to terms with life and death, which involves making important memories, which involves cultivating her Wordsworthian “inward eye which is the bliss of solitude,” which involves seriously decreasing the list of things she hates in favor of things she loves, which culminates in her perfect naming of her baby brother.It is a fast-reading, amusing, moving, concise, and at times potent novel that does more with less. There was one point in the middle that moved me to tears (when Anastasia says she hates that her grandmother has to get old), many points that make me chuckle (like when Anastasia chooses for her Catholic name “Perpetua”), a few points that would probably make kids laugh (like when one of her father’s students says, “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” is “a crock of --“ and Anastasia notes that she heard her father say that same (missing) word earlier that day “when he realized that his pen had leaked ink on the pocket of his favorite shirt”), some points that make me think the characters are too articulate and witty (as when her mother mentions having played Monopoly when she was ten with the first boy she loved, so Anastasia asks, “Did Edward Mark get into building hotels?” so her jealous father asks, “If you were going to get involved with a hotel magnate. . . why didn’t you make it Conrad Hilton”), and one point that makes me cringe (like the way the object of Anastasia’s crush, the afro-styled 6th grade African American Washburn Cummings walks around stereotypically “bouncing an imaginary basketball and wiggling his hips,” though it is nice that Lowry depicts the object of her white heroine’s transitory affections as being a person of color).And I thought the chapter in which Anastasia writes a poem was unconvincing: Her classmates’ grade A poems are too obviously trite, like one boy’s that goes, “I have a dog whose name is Spot./ He likes to eat and drink a lot,” while her poem is too e. e. cummings-esque and accomplished for a ten-year-old (even one who’s the daughter of a professor/poet and a painter!):hush hush the sea- soft night is aswim withwrinklesquirm creatures listen (!)To them move smooth n the moistly dark here in the whisperwarm wetBut there are more moments that sound like the pure expression of an intelligent and thoughtful ten-year-old girl and make the novel rewarding to read, like this: “’Boy,’ said Anastasia, ‘you know what I wish? I wish that everybody who loved each other would die at exactly the same time. Then nobody would have to miss anyone.’”Fans of Lowry’s more famous works should read this earlier one.

I chose this book at a bookstore sometime around 1988 or so because my parents refused to buy me any Sweet Valley books and because I liked the name Anastasia. This series was a favorite for years and since I have a cousin about the same age now, I've been rereading the books and they still hold up enough to share.Though this is a children's book and the writing is not overly complex, the stories are mature enough to be interesting to an older reader as well. I particularly enjoyed Anastasia's parents, even more so when I read the books as an adult-- I thought my parents were great but if I had to choose fictional parents, it would have been the Krupniks, no question, and I hoped to be a parent like them someday.It surprises me these books aren't better known. Definitely worth the investment.

Just as funny and strikingly poignant as I remembered, and then some. Yes, there is some mild swearing and alcohol consumption (by adults), but this is really a rather tame YA read by today's standards. A really refreshingly lovely blast-from-the-past. Anastasia is a very straight-forward "tell it like it is" budding personality. She and her parents have a wonderful, open dialogue in much of the book. They encourage her to think for herself. This book has stood the test of time rather well and Lowry's introductory foreward is insightful.

I don't think you should buy it for someone that is under the age of ten. Why? It talks about love and cigars and beer. Don't give it to your young daughter who is going through a lot. I rated it five stars because I loved it. Anastasia gets a new brother. She thinks about naming it something nasty but then changes her mind. You will love this book

I loved this book growing up and was really excited to pass it on to my 10 year old daughter. She's right at that age where she can relate to some of the things Anastacia deals with, and gets a little insight into how it feels to have a sibling. I'll definitely be stealing this from my daughter soon so I can reread it!

A cute and fun read. As the setting is in the 1970s, many of the references and modern practices are absent that might create a disparity to modern teens, but the wit and simple truths present raise is above most.

表紙の子よりもう少し幼い感じの子が主人公です。この本は、何冊もシリーズ化されているようです。英語の多読にちょうどよいと思います。続けてシリーズ全冊読破！・・・・もいいかもしれません。私は、この女の子の世界に浸るには、ちょっとばかり年を取りすぎました。

主人公のアナスタシアは、作家の父と画家の母と共にボストンで暮す１０歳の女の子。両親がクリエイティブな職業だからか、彼女もかなり個性的に育っています。多感な少女にとって世の中は納得がいかなかったり、疑問に思うことだらけ。たとえば、彼女が学校で書いた渾身の詩が、韻を踏んでいないからと先生に却下されたり（私はすごく面白いと思いましたが）、今更子供を作った両親にあきれはてたり、ボケたおばあちゃんをどのように扱ったらいいかわからないし、でもそれを見守る家族のせつなさに触れたりと、少しずつ、人生の幸せと哀しみを学んで行きます。でも発言がいちいち生意気なので可笑しいです。何より、家族間の会話が楽しいです。突拍子もないことを言い出す娘に、正面から向き合う両親がステキ。母親の妊娠に動揺し、名前を決める権利を得た彼女は、ひそかに最悪な名前を用意しますが、ある出来事を経て、最終的に決めた名前とは・・・。感動的です。シリーズ物で、先が長いのでとても楽しみです。ボストンという町の雰囲気と、両親の職業のせいだと思いますが、全体にアカデミックな雰囲気が漂っています。