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Anastasia Krupnik #8
Anastasia at This Address
"SWM, 28, boyish charm, inherited wealth, looking for tall young woman, nonsmoker, to share Caribbean vacations, reruns of Casablanca, and romance." When thirteen-year-old Anastasia Krupnic sees this ad in a personal column, she decides to write back, even though it means stretching the truth more than a little bit. So what if her best friends have given up on boys. Anastasia is ready for romance. But is she ready for a pen pal who makes a shocking request? He wants to meet her!
130 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
59 people are currently reading
458 people want to read
About the author
Lois Lowry
111 books22.8k 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 64 reviews
July 1, 2020
My husband came into the room while I was reading this aloud to Isaac and was like "wait, are you reading our son a book about a 13-yr-old catfishing an old man" and I was like "yes" and he was like "ok, carry on."
January 23, 2020
Oh my dear! Adults you’ve got to read this! It’s absolutely and utterly hilarious! It will keep you in stitches from the first to last page.
It will need some editing for kids or you can read it aloud and edit it on the go.
**Like my reviews? Then you should follow me! Because I have hundreds more just like this one. With each review, I provide a Cleanliness Report, mentioning any objectionable content I come across so that parents and/or conscientious readers (like me) can determine beforehand whether they want to read a book or not. Content surprises are super annoying, especially when you’re 100+ pages in, so here’s my attempt to help you avoid that!
So Follow or Friend me here on GoodReads! You’ll see my updates as I’m reading and know which books I’m liking and what I’m not finishing and why. You’ll also be able to utilize my library for looking up titles to see whether the book you’re thinking about reading next has any objectionable content or not. From swear words, to romance, to bad attitudes (in children’s books), I cover it all!
It will need some editing for kids or you can read it aloud and edit it on the go.
**Like my reviews? Then you should follow me! Because I have hundreds more just like this one. With each review, I provide a Cleanliness Report, mentioning any objectionable content I come across so that parents and/or conscientious readers (like me) can determine beforehand whether they want to read a book or not. Content surprises are super annoying, especially when you’re 100+ pages in, so here’s my attempt to help you avoid that!
So Follow or Friend me here on GoodReads! You’ll see my updates as I’m reading and know which books I’m liking and what I’m not finishing and why. You’ll also be able to utilize my library for looking up titles to see whether the book you’re thinking about reading next has any objectionable content or not. From swear words, to romance, to bad attitudes (in children’s books), I cover it all!
January 17, 2021
Lois Lowry's "Anastasia" books are always solidly fun for me to read (or re-read): humorous realistic middle-grade fiction with some moments of nostalgia for late-twentieth-century New England. (In this one, Anastasia and her friends drink milkshakes at Friendly's, and Anastasia gets her ears pierced at Jordan Marsh.) Anyway: this is also the one where Anastasia (who is 13) answers a personals ad in the New York Review of Books placed by a "SWM, 28" who has "boyish charm" and "inherited wealth" and is " looking for tall young woman, nonsmoker, to share Caribbean vacations, reruns of Casablanca, and romance." All of this sounds pretty good to Anastasia, though clearly she isn't entirely thinking things through. As you can imagine, her (repeated) letters to this guy are quite funny, and have humorous/awkward consequences.
Meanwhile, Anastasia and her best friends have all decided to give up the "pursuit of boys" because surely there are better things they could be doing with their time. Anastasia feels guilty for not telling her friends that she is still pursuing a man, but she doesn't have too long to feel bad: they're all soon caught up in preparations for her friend Meredith's sister's wedding, at which Meredith, Anastasia, and their friends Daphne and Sonya are all going to be "junior bridesmaids".
The two plot lines come together in a way that Anastasia definitely does not anticipate, and the whole thing is quite an entertaining romp. And it's always fun to read about the interactions between Anastasia and her parents and her little brother Sam: at one point in this one Anastasia is dismayed at seeing her dad, an accomplished literature professor, "helping a three-year-old dig a tunnel through a potato as if it were the most important enterprise in the world." (Another funny moment of dismay: Anastasia's dad is appalled when her mom says this about War and Peace: "I only read the peace parts. I jumped from one peace part to the next. I never read the war parts.")
Meanwhile, Anastasia and her best friends have all decided to give up the "pursuit of boys" because surely there are better things they could be doing with their time. Anastasia feels guilty for not telling her friends that she is still pursuing a man, but she doesn't have too long to feel bad: they're all soon caught up in preparations for her friend Meredith's sister's wedding, at which Meredith, Anastasia, and their friends Daphne and Sonya are all going to be "junior bridesmaids".
The two plot lines come together in a way that Anastasia definitely does not anticipate, and the whole thing is quite an entertaining romp. And it's always fun to read about the interactions between Anastasia and her parents and her little brother Sam: at one point in this one Anastasia is dismayed at seeing her dad, an accomplished literature professor, "helping a three-year-old dig a tunnel through a potato as if it were the most important enterprise in the world." (Another funny moment of dismay: Anastasia's dad is appalled when her mom says this about War and Peace: "I only read the peace parts. I jumped from one peace part to the next. I never read the war parts.")
October 29, 2015
Anastasia, I will never not get a kick out of you. In this installation, I particularly liked hearing Anastasia's conversation with her three friends on how they've given up boys (or to be more accurate, "the pursuit of men").
"Like what?" Meredith Halberg asked. "What could be more worthwhile than chasing boys?"
Sonya shrugged. "I could be working on a cure for cancer. Or knitting mittens for homeless people. Or -- I don't know. Anything. Just about anything would be more worthwhile than chasing Norman Berkowitz all the time."
I wish I had read this when I was younger, as I also spent too much time and energy chasing boys. Anyway, Anastasia is still secretly chasing a boy (really actually pursuing a man) that she found in a personal ad. The letters become increasingly hysterical until we reach our ridiculous and funny conclusion.
"Like what?" Meredith Halberg asked. "What could be more worthwhile than chasing boys?"
Sonya shrugged. "I could be working on a cure for cancer. Or knitting mittens for homeless people. Or -- I don't know. Anything. Just about anything would be more worthwhile than chasing Norman Berkowitz all the time."
I wish I had read this when I was younger, as I also spent too much time and energy chasing boys. Anyway, Anastasia is still secretly chasing a boy (really actually pursuing a man) that she found in a personal ad. The letters become increasingly hysterical until we reach our ridiculous and funny conclusion.
January 28, 2009
Sometimes I think Anastasia needs more supervision.
In this installment of the series that seems to go on forever, Anastasia answers the personal ad written by a grown up man! It's kind of sweet that she doesn't seem to know that people write personal ads in order to get S-E-X. I wonder if many 13 year olds today don't know that. (Maybe I am underestimating the youth of today.)
Instead of being scary or weird or dangerous, this book is a comic romp! Anastasia is not kidnapped and sold into sex slavery or anything complicated like that. In fact, no one even knows what she did.
Oh that Anastasia, she's a firecracker.
In this installment of the series that seems to go on forever, Anastasia answers the personal ad written by a grown up man! It's kind of sweet that she doesn't seem to know that people write personal ads in order to get S-E-X. I wonder if many 13 year olds today don't know that. (Maybe I am underestimating the youth of today.)
Instead of being scary or weird or dangerous, this book is a comic romp! Anastasia is not kidnapped and sold into sex slavery or anything complicated like that. In fact, no one even knows what she did.
Oh that Anastasia, she's a firecracker.
February 1, 2023
Anastasia goes catfishing! This one's back to having the classic Krupnik family dynamics and humour. Anastasia writes letters to an older man, becomes a bridesmaid, does proper adult conversing at the wedding and feels all grown up. The whole 'wok' joke was overegged but Anastasia's confession at the end did make me laugh.
September 9, 2024
Another charming book in the Anastasia series. This time Anastasia replies to a personal ad, and tries to not lie during the course of the correspondence. She also becomes a junior bridesmaid for Meredith's sisters wedding.
September 22, 2011
I cop to reading YA lit. I was getting books for my kids at the public library and stumbled on this Anastasia book that I hadn't remembered reading back in the day. It fits well with all the rest. Anastasia is such a winning, original combination of precocious nerd and total innocent.
Having imagined that a childhood like mine would provide no substance for a good book, it was a treat once upon a time to discover Lois Lowry's series about the Krupniks, a suburban family of four in the Northeast, with Ivy League-ish bookish parents and a determined, list-making daughter whose great plans never quite live up to her dreams.
Having imagined that a childhood like mine would provide no substance for a good book, it was a treat once upon a time to discover Lois Lowry's series about the Krupniks, a suburban family of four in the Northeast, with Ivy League-ish bookish parents and a determined, list-making daughter whose great plans never quite live up to her dreams.
January 24, 2018
I remember reading this in junior high, and sighing over Septimus right along with Anastasia.
Read
August 24, 2022don’t ask, I found this in an LFL and read it in 45 minutes when I was bored. I grew up reading books like these from the late80s/early 90s that I got from the thrift store, that I remember seeming dated even then. I can’t say this one has stood the test of time…The plot involves a 13 year old catfishing a 28 year old man via letter as this is preinternet. (Flashback to 8 year old me pretending to be a teenage boy in yahoo chatrooms lol)
April 22, 2020
A hilarious lighthearted take on one of my favourite topics - catfishing
Really enjoyed the jokes
Really enjoyed the jokes
July 23, 2020
Yeet! Enjoyable, yet... just wrong.
June 16, 2013
An ad in a personal column captivates Anastasia Krupnik. Single White Male. Her friends have sworn off boys since they’re so immature, but this grown man sounds irresistible. How is a middle school girl supposed to get the attention of a man, especially one who’s receiving hundreds of letters from single women all over the country? Anastasia doesn’t lie, or so she tells herself. Yes, she owns her own boat since she bought a toy boat from her brother. She goes to school, which makes her a scholar. She does have friends and goes out, so she is busy with social engagements. Of course she'll send a picture...of someone older.
Anastasia is long-winded and tries too hard in her letters, which is all a part of her inexperience and naiveté. As one would expect, she makes a mess out of things. SWM wants to meet her after reading all her letters and appreciating the picture she sent. This is a fun book and the ending had a twist I didn’t expect.
Reading other reviews and seeing how some people had issues with this book, the time it was published has to be taken into consideration. This book was written years ago with a tone of humor and innocence. It would be something else if it were written today with all the internet criminality one sees in the news. That aside, I’d love to read more from this series.
Anastasia is long-winded and tries too hard in her letters, which is all a part of her inexperience and naiveté. As one would expect, she makes a mess out of things. SWM wants to meet her after reading all her letters and appreciating the picture she sent. This is a fun book and the ending had a twist I didn’t expect.
Reading other reviews and seeing how some people had issues with this book, the time it was published has to be taken into consideration. This book was written years ago with a tone of humor and innocence. It would be something else if it were written today with all the internet criminality one sees in the news. That aside, I’d love to read more from this series.
March 31, 2011
I have now read eight Anastasia books in a row. Maybe I'm getting tired of them. Maybe this is because, at 29, I'm not really the intended audience. Maybe the quality of the writing is actually decreasing. Possibly the author is just running out of funny things to have Anastasia do, so the situations are getting more ridiculous. I don't know.
In this volume, Anastasia decides to answer a personal ad in The New York Review of Books. Obviously, the person who placed the ad is much older than Anastasia, but he writes back to her anyway. I find it hard to believe that this individual would not realize from the quality of her writing that she is a teenager, but if that were the case, there wouldn't be much to have a book about, either. Also, Anastasia gets to be a junior bridesmaid in her friend's sister's wedding. I also find it hard to believe that sister did not have any other friends, so she has to stoop to having her 7th grade sister's friends be her bridesmaids. I find Anastasia's parents and younger brother far more compelling characters than Anastasia herself.
In this volume, Anastasia decides to answer a personal ad in The New York Review of Books. Obviously, the person who placed the ad is much older than Anastasia, but he writes back to her anyway. I find it hard to believe that this individual would not realize from the quality of her writing that she is a teenager, but if that were the case, there wouldn't be much to have a book about, either. Also, Anastasia gets to be a junior bridesmaid in her friend's sister's wedding. I also find it hard to believe that sister did not have any other friends, so she has to stoop to having her 7th grade sister's friends be her bridesmaids. I find Anastasia's parents and younger brother far more compelling characters than Anastasia herself.
November 18, 2011
Still my favorite of the Anastasia books--a perfect mix of Anastasia's precocious nature and cringe-worthy moments. A seventh grader brings her A game to win the epistolary affections of an independently wealthy 28 year old looking for love in the New York Review of Books personals. Only a slightly better premise than when Anastasia buys a rummage sale bust of Freud in order to have a therapist in Anastasia, Ask Your Analyst.
May 9, 2021
I still very much enjoy rereading this entry in the series, mostly because it makes me chuckle so often.... But the story is slight and there are a couple of running jokes that very much don't hold up and in fact come off as slightly bigoted. Something that feels quite out of place in such a lovely set of stories
July 25, 2024
2024 Review:
A fun and adventurous book that features all of Anastasia's trademark characteristics, her inquisitiveness, her daydreaming, and her charming naivety in a story that utilizes them all very well.
I did find all of the wok jokes to be a bit weird, though.
2020 Review: Extremely funny as always!
A fun and adventurous book that features all of Anastasia's trademark characteristics, her inquisitiveness, her daydreaming, and her charming naivety in a story that utilizes them all very well.
I did find all of the wok jokes to be a bit weird, though.
2020 Review: Extremely funny as always!
April 14, 2025
Tagged a few things because they're mentioned in passing, not because they're major topics in the book, but I do like to note when there's even a single sentence about those things. Just to keep track.
Well! This is certainly different from Lowry's OTHER book I read! Seems curiously normal by comparison!
That said, it's... pretty cringey. Out the gate, Anastasia doesn't know what an acronym is, asking her parents what "word" GWM is (Gay White Male). I feel like acronyms were easily a thing starting in elementary, something that a *seventh-grader* should know by her age.
Second, the book's primarily about Anastasia striking up a romance with a *28-year-old* through... snail mail. Wow, that's dating this story already! I can't imagine current-day seventh-graders bothering with such a thing when the internet has COUNTLESS people of unverifiable age immediately at hand for instant texting and messaging, zero waiting. (Also dating the story, that the bride takes Anastasia and her friends clothes-shopping and asks them to lock their doors—can't imagine anyone contemporary NOT having doors that lock with a keyless entry fob OR driving a car that's at LEAST twenty years old by now...)
Third, Guy REALLY sending form letters to everyone who responded to his advertisement, that sounds like a winner! Again, though, in the current day, almost NOBODY would respond to a *text-only* advertisement in a magazine when there are like ten billion apps where you can at least SEE A PHOTO of whoever this "SWM, 28, looking for tall young woman" is, even if the photo is a fake (like Anastasia's).
Actually, the more I write about this, the more stars I want to deduct. Like, I actively dislike the main storyline, and it also feels increasingly irrelevant in the current day. Sure, it COULD be updated a little for the current day, like how Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret got updated to more accurately reflect sanitary napkins (which always perplexed me, that they used to have a *belt*? but the copy I had was old, so...?), but it feels like it would essentially require writing an entirely new book since 1. their correspondence would be greatly accelerated, and 2. Googling each other would be a thing, which would've probably stopped the "relationship" much sooner.
Besides that, has she even considered that it's ILLEGAL for a 28-year-old to date a 13-year-old? *checks* ...okay, actually I don't know about strictly dating, no sex involved. It's DEFINITELY questionable, though, despite the abundance of media *specifically portraying* very young girls in particular wanting to marry VERY MUCH older men. I don't know. Also, that Anastasia never once considers her love interest's point of view on it: He admits in the form letter that he's interested in the one who responded that she had a boat, so why would he show interest in Anastasia when she acquires a... *toy* boat?
I don't know. Maybe it's me being fed up that, in all my years of dating (and, currently, marriage), I've never been interested in anyone too far outside my age range? Like, a certain number of years in either direction, other people often have VASTLY different interests and experiences from mine. I lucked out with my spouse and I having a very large overlap of both, so I don't have to spend ages explaining some weird thing—my spouse will instantly get a very lot of something that I find funny/frustrating, and vice versa. I can't imagine trying to date someone less than half (or more than twice!) my age! At any age I've been or will be!
I don't *hate* the book, but it's definitely niche, and I don't know anyone who would actually enjoy reading it, not these days. Back when it was current, maybe.
Well! This is certainly different from Lowry's OTHER book I read! Seems curiously normal by comparison!
That said, it's... pretty cringey. Out the gate, Anastasia doesn't know what an acronym is, asking her parents what "word" GWM is (Gay White Male). I feel like acronyms were easily a thing starting in elementary, something that a *seventh-grader* should know by her age.
Second, the book's primarily about Anastasia striking up a romance with a *28-year-old* through... snail mail. Wow, that's dating this story already! I can't imagine current-day seventh-graders bothering with such a thing when the internet has COUNTLESS people of unverifiable age immediately at hand for instant texting and messaging, zero waiting. (Also dating the story, that the bride takes Anastasia and her friends clothes-shopping and asks them to lock their doors—can't imagine anyone contemporary NOT having doors that lock with a keyless entry fob OR driving a car that's at LEAST twenty years old by now...)
Third, Guy REALLY sending form letters to everyone who responded to his advertisement, that sounds like a winner! Again, though, in the current day, almost NOBODY would respond to a *text-only* advertisement in a magazine when there are like ten billion apps where you can at least SEE A PHOTO of whoever this "SWM, 28, looking for tall young woman" is, even if the photo is a fake (like Anastasia's).
Actually, the more I write about this, the more stars I want to deduct. Like, I actively dislike the main storyline, and it also feels increasingly irrelevant in the current day. Sure, it COULD be updated a little for the current day, like how Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret got updated to more accurately reflect sanitary napkins (which always perplexed me, that they used to have a *belt*? but the copy I had was old, so...?), but it feels like it would essentially require writing an entirely new book since 1. their correspondence would be greatly accelerated, and 2. Googling each other would be a thing, which would've probably stopped the "relationship" much sooner.
Besides that, has she even considered that it's ILLEGAL for a 28-year-old to date a 13-year-old? *checks* ...okay, actually I don't know about strictly dating, no sex involved. It's DEFINITELY questionable, though, despite the abundance of media *specifically portraying* very young girls in particular wanting to marry VERY MUCH older men. I don't know. Also, that Anastasia never once considers her love interest's point of view on it: He admits in the form letter that he's interested in the one who responded that she had a boat, so why would he show interest in Anastasia when she acquires a... *toy* boat?
I don't know. Maybe it's me being fed up that, in all my years of dating (and, currently, marriage), I've never been interested in anyone too far outside my age range? Like, a certain number of years in either direction, other people often have VASTLY different interests and experiences from mine. I lucked out with my spouse and I having a very large overlap of both, so I don't have to spend ages explaining some weird thing—my spouse will instantly get a very lot of something that I find funny/frustrating, and vice versa. I can't imagine trying to date someone less than half (or more than twice!) my age! At any age I've been or will be!
I don't *hate* the book, but it's definitely niche, and I don't know anyone who would actually enjoy reading it, not these days. Back when it was current, maybe.
March 27, 2022
I loved the Anastasia series as a teen and couldn't believe my luck when I stumbled across this one at a secondhand book sale. I love rediscovering middle-grade fiction as an adult and this one was definitely as good as I remembered. It reminded me of the Georgia Nicholson series by Louise Rennison but slightly more toned down for a younger audience - it was comical, angsty, and memorable with a little plot twist that I didn't even see coming because I was so caught up in Anastasia's antics. It's aged a little (as expected) but that only added to the 90s nostalgia.
I'm sure a 13-year-old girl catfishing a 28-year-old man would most certainly be frowned upon these days but in the context of when this book was written, I thought it was witty, entertaining, and mysterious.
Rating breakdown
Plot/narrative - 4.3
Writing style/readability - 4.4
Characters - 4.5
Diverse themes - 3.5
Ending - 4.3
Overall - 4.2
I'm sure a 13-year-old girl catfishing a 28-year-old man would most certainly be frowned upon these days but in the context of when this book was written, I thought it was witty, entertaining, and mysterious.
Rating breakdown
Plot/narrative - 4.3
Writing style/readability - 4.4
Characters - 4.5
Diverse themes - 3.5
Ending - 4.3
Overall - 4.2
January 26, 2018
Anastasia replies to a classified ad of a single white male, 28, and ends up fudging facts.
These books are a joy to read. Anastasia is a great character - a smart typical girl who stands by her friends and family and goes through her share of learning bumps. This plot was a big bump. Anastasia starts the pen pal process fairly innocently (she wouldn't want to meet the guy for years, not till she's at least graduated college), but gets pulled into a bit of a mess. The conclusion to this is funny and fair. I wish more books like this were still written today. One more book in the series to go, and I'll definitely read it.
These books are a joy to read. Anastasia is a great character - a smart typical girl who stands by her friends and family and goes through her share of learning bumps. This plot was a big bump. Anastasia starts the pen pal process fairly innocently (she wouldn't want to meet the guy for years, not till she's at least graduated college), but gets pulled into a bit of a mess. The conclusion to this is funny and fair. I wish more books like this were still written today. One more book in the series to go, and I'll definitely read it.
Read
January 18, 2021This one seemed a little thinner to me. Anastasia has renounced her pursuit of boys, and yet ends up writing letters to a SWM, in pursuit of true romance. The reader, throughout this epistolary adventure, knows that no good will come of this. But Anastasia is ever the slightly naive optimist, and she continues to write letters until her secret identity is threatened, after which she experiences some regret. Small moments of humor are still present, and there are some interesting discussions about the sacrifices we make in marriage, but this particular entry in the series was just not as robust for me.
April 26, 2023
So, 13-year old Anastasia answers a personal ad from a grown-ass man. Catfishing for the middle school crowd, I guess? This one was a bit too dependent on the "coincidences" at the end for my liking, and look - I was stupid at 13. We all kind of are. But Anastasia gets herself into some crap that even I wouldn't have been stupide enough to do. I think the older she gets, the less charmed I am by these books, even in their nostalgia.
January 29, 2018
I honestly love all of the Anastasia books. They are funny, and relatable, and real and great.
This one has some fun moments with the misunderstanding with the letters and the dozens of woks as wedding gifts. Taps into the real teenage girl experience of wanting to be grown up and elegant, but realizing you're not quite there yet.
This one has some fun moments with the misunderstanding with the letters and the dozens of woks as wedding gifts. Taps into the real teenage girl experience of wanting to be grown up and elegant, but realizing you're not quite there yet.
April 25, 2023
This book really went over my head as a little kid. It's way funnier now that I'm older and I can realize some of the jokes and the hijinx Anastasia gets herself into. Although, I'd love some more insight into what she was thinking about writing to somebody that much older than her. She knew it wasn't a good idea because she lied about her age. But I loved it, such a great time.
November 30, 2021
Randomly saw someone recommend this on Twitter--who knew a middle grade book from 1991 could be so funny?
My only issue is there is a running joke in the book that felt a bit 'off' (re: wok). A sign of the times, I guess.
My only issue is there is a running joke in the book that felt a bit 'off' (re: wok). A sign of the times, I guess.
July 18, 2018
Another fun book in one of my all-time favorite literary series! Lowry is a genius and an American treasure.
November 23, 2021
Talk about second hand embarrassment. This plot didn't work as well for me as the others, but still a quick fun read!
March 9, 2022
3.25 stars
April 19, 2022
I read this series when I was younger, and I could not remember if I ever read this particular book. The plot is a little odd, but I still enjoyed re-connecting with Anastasia and her family.
September 10, 2022
Obviously toward the end of this series and Lowry took some strange progressive turns with Anastasia. A clunker, problematic, did not age well.
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