Anastasia Krupnik -series by Lois Lowry

[frankie]

 

 

I thought I'd start a thread on the Anastasia Krupnik book series as it's one of my favorite book series from growing up, and also because I know some of you have started reading the books and I thought it would be great to have a special thread for the books to discuss them!

 

Instead of going to Amazon and quoting a synopsis of the first book, I thought I'd quote Wikipedia instead, there being a lot of interesting stuff on there regarding the books. 

 

"Anastasia Krupnik (1979) is the first book of a popular series of middle-grade novels by Lois Lowry, depicting the title character's life as a girl "just trying to grow up." Anastasia deals with everyday problems such as popularity and the wart on her thumb. The book is written in episodic fashion, each chapter self-contained with minimal narrative link to the others. At the end of each chapter is a list written by Anastasia, listing her likes and dislikes, showing the character's growth and development through the story.

The Anastasia Krupnik series was 29th on the American Library Association's "The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000"^[1] for reasons such as references to beer, Playboy Magazine, and a casual reference to a character wanting to eat herself."

 

(I left out a paragraph that spoiled the whole plot of one of the later novels.)

It's pretty shocking to me that some of the Anastasia books have actually been banned, at least in schools if not entirely. A mention of wanting to commit suicide (which I believe is a pretty normal statement when undergoing puberty and hormones and teenage angst) led to one of the books being banned.

I would recommend the book series to anyone who's not averse to reading children's / young adult books. Anastasia is one of the cleverest, quirkiest and interesting characters I've met and her family is just amazing. Lois Lowry tackles some pretty important issues in the books and shows a great deal of kindness and compassion to issues and people from all walks of life.

Edited April 2, 2015 by frankie