Anastasia Krupnik

By Lois Lowry and Diane de Groat

Anastasia's tenth year has some good things, like falling in love and really getting to know her grandmother, and some bad things, like finding out about an impending baby brother.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Oct 24, 1979
• ISBN: 9780547345628

Lois Lowry

Lois Lowry is the author of more than forty books for children and young adults, including the New York Times bestselling Giver Quartet and the popular Anastasia Krupnik series. She has received countless honors, among them the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award, the California Young Reader Medal, and the Mark Twain Award. She received Newbery Medals for two of her novels, Number the Stars and The Giver.

Book preview

Copyright © 1979 by Lois Lowry

All rights reserved. Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 1979.

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to [e-mail] or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

www.hmhco.com

Cover design by Sheila Smallwood

Cover art © 2014 Sara Not

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

Lowry, Lois.

Anastasia Krupnik.

Summary: Anastasia’s 10th year has some good things, like falling in love and really getting to know her grandmother, and some bad things, like finding out about an impending baby brother.

I. De Groat, Diane. II. Title.

PZ7.L9673An [Fic] 79-18625

ISBN: 978-0-395-28629-6 hardcover

ISBN: 978-0-544-33668-1 paperback

eISBN 978-0-547-34562-8

v5.0816

For Kip

Introduction

Anastasia was born in the winter of 1978. No computers then; she emerged from an old typewriter and kind of took me by surprise. But I think I know why she appeared. I had just written two books—the second was about to be published—and both of them were solemn, serious in tone. I was working on a third, Autumn Street, which made me cry every time I reread the completed chapters.

I think Anastasia simply came forward, tugged at my sleeve, and said, Hey. Lighten up.

When characters float into my consciousness like that, they frequently arrive with a name. Where hers came from I have no idea. (But it’s a thrill knowing that there are several young women out there, grown by now, who were named for her.)

And a character’s personality? Often it has its origins in my own remembered early years. Meg Chalmers, in A Summer to Die, was me. So was Elizabeth, in Autumn Street.

But Anastasia Krupnik—feisty, outspoken, sometimes confrontational? Not me at all. Anastasia came directly from the national news; I had often chuckled reading or watching accounts of the presidential daughter of those years, Amy Carter, who said what she thought. (Once an idiotic journalist asked the ten-year-old if she had anything to say to the children of the world. To her credit, Amy Carter replied, No.)

I even pictured Anastasia looking like Jimmy Carter’s strawberry-blond daughter (though over the years various illustrators portrayed Anastasia as dark-haired).

And I gave her the kind of family (artistic, intellectual, funny) and the kind of home (book-filled, messy, colorful) that I admired.

As for her adventures? I gave her none, really. I gave her instead the small things that make up an ordinary life: the little heartbreaks and disappointments, the tiny misadventures, and the moments of family affection. The Krupniks squabble and they laugh about it later. They make mistakes and they laugh about it later. Anastasia sulks and threatens to run away; she changes her mind and they laugh about it later. She falls in love, and out of love, and tries to understand love, and in the process she is surrounded by it.

When I was midway through the writing of the book, I was invited to speak at a parochial school. It was a pretty old-fashioned school, even then—and this was more than thirty years ago—with the teachers, all of them nuns, still wearing the long black habits that are today a relic of the past. I decided it was a good occasion to vet the chapter in which Anastasia decides to become a Catholic. So I read those pages in the yet-unfinished book to a classroom of kids, probably fifth-graders, who I could see were glancing a little nervously at the two black-garbed teachers standing on the side of the room. After a few minutes it became clear to the kids that it was okay to giggle, because both nuns were bent double, their shoulders shaking with laughter, and one had to daub at her eyes.

I remember, too, a performance of a theatrical adaptation of the book that I saw at a midwestern college one time, for which a little bit of dialogue had to be hastily rewritten before the second show. It was the scene in which Anastasia, bemoaning her name, longing for a trendy one that would lend itself to a nickname ending in i like those of her friends Becki and Traci and Cindi, wails to her parents: They’re all getting T-shirts with their names on them. Look at my chest! Picture my name across my chest!

Trouble was, the very talented college sophomore playing Anastasia on the stage was unusually well-endowed in that department. When she wailed, Look at my chest! the entire audience, mostly students, did just that and burst out laughing. In the evening performance, it became Look at my back! Picture my name across my back!

Back in the days when I used to spend more time visiting schools, I occasionally held Anastasia look-alike contests. I invited volunteers to come to the stage; the stipulation was that they had to wear glasses and be between nine and twelve. Then I held the hardcover book above each contestant and the audience clapped for their favorite, and I gave the winner, the one who garnered the greatest applause, a signed book. I remember liking how it made heroines, for that brief time, of somewhat nerdy-looking girls: no gorgeous blondes, no cheerleaders, just the solemn, scholarly sorts, the kind of child I had once been.

I learned, though, to be more meticulous in my description of the qualifications for the contestants, when (I think this was in Winchester, Virginia) the award went to a pair of bespectacled identical twins . . . boys.

Because she came into being in the late 1970s, some things about Anastasia’s life may seem a little dated to today’s young readers. For example: no cell phones, no computers. If she were a fourth-grader today, would she still be writing in that green notebook, or would she be blogging instead? Would she cover her bedroom floor with crumpled attempts at poem-writing, or would she simply be revising on her laptop?

One thing is for sure: she would still be curious, impatient, bright, and very verbal. And if she had grown older each year? She would now be forty-five years old, and a college graduate, for sure—her parents would see to that. She’d be tall; she always complained that she was the tallest girl in her class. I doubt if she’d be wearing contacts; she always liked her owl-eyed glasses. Fashionable? Well, in her own way, perhaps—Anastasia was never one to follow trends. She’d still be clumsy, I’m afraid, and if she ever took a summer job as a waitress she would not have been very good at balancing the trays. But her family’s love of books, art, and music would have stayed with her, and whereever the grown-up Anastasia chose to live (oh, I hope it would be Cambridge!), her house or apartment would be filled with those things that were so much a part of her past. And her family would be close by. (I do hope her father finally managed to quit smoking.)

one

[Image]

Anastasia Krupnik was ten. She had hair the color of Hubbard squash, fourteen freckles across her nose (and seven others in places that she preferred people not to know about), and glasses with large owl-eyed rims, which she had chosen herself at the optician’s.

Once she had thought that she might like to be a professional ice skater. But after two years of trying, she still skated on the insides of her ankles.

Reviews for Anastasia Krupnik

[nadinec.keels · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Falling in love for the first time. A new baby brother on the way. Beginning to understand her forgetful, elderly grandmother. There's plenty of new stuff going on for a ten-year-old named Anastasia Krupnik by author Lois Lowry.Well! Anastasia's pretty liberal about identifying everything she doesn't like, so I don't feel bad starting out with cons for this middle grade read from the 1970s.Anastasia is smart in an academic and bookish way, but she also has quite a smart mouth at times, just downright disrespectful. Her writer-artist-type parents tend not to make a thing of it, and with an especially quirky father who's okay with cussing in front of his daughter (yes, the story includes an actual "would've been bleeped out on network TV" cuss word—twice) and letting his daughter sip his wine and slurp the foam from his beers, going with the flow of his child's smart mouth is understandable for his character.Also, maybe I grew up with kids who grew up pretty fast, but even with Anastasia's smarts, some of her experiences seem littler-kiddish to me. This isn't the only middle grade book that's given me that impression lately, but it isn't something I noticed the first time I read this story. Granted, I think I was only eight or nine then.So, I almost feel guilty that I enjoyed the book more this time than I did as a kid. (Grownup nostalgia, partly?) It's a funny read in a dry and offhand kind of way, and it's also got some truly poignant moments. Anastasia becomes more likable late in the story, and the ending is wonderful.Good thing, when my younger self read the book, it didn't make me think I could get away with being a smart aleck, and I didn't repeat the story's cuss word to anybody. My adult self plans to visit or revisit more books in this series.

[fingerpost_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Anastasia Krupnik is an only child, her mother an artist, and her father a college professor. She is bright and precocious. She keeps an ever changing list of things she likes and things she does not like. Among her various issues: a teacher who doesn't like her poetry because it doesn't rhyme; a roudy black boy in her school who she has a crush on; her grandmother, who can't remember who Anastasia is; and most of all, a baby brother on the way.Anastasia is smart and sweet enough to be likable, but she has the realistic problems that ten-year-olds have... she can be impatient, pig-headed, selfish, and impolite as well. Her parents are nicely developed characters themselves, too. (Many YA novels portray parents that are rather one-dimensional.) It was laugh out loud funny at times, and occasionally I shed a few tears as well.Hope the others in the series are as good as this one.

[evalangui_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The not very purposeful diary like experience of the delightful A. Krupnik. Fun and funny and cool.

[dmtcer-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Anastasia hates her name, her teacher, her freckles, liver, her parents, and boys. Originally published in 1979, Anastasia is a typical average 10 year old girl learning what it means to grow up. I truly loved this book!

[amberthehuman · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I never read these books as a kid - not sure why, just didn't get around to them. It's interesting reading about what life would be like for a pre-teen in the time that I was a baby. I read this book while on a plane, and it was distracting enough. A bit dated, sure, but still pretty interesting. Definitely shows all the back and forth that goes through a kid's mind.

[yona-414000 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very much fun. It lived up to all my hopes for a younger children's book from Lois Lowry. The development of the "things I love" and "things I hate" lists as things would move between the lists with the progression of the story was interesting to watch and brought smiles. I loved her poem.

[satyridae · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My GoodReads friends were right, as usual. This is a funny, warm, delightful book. Anastasia is a treat, her parents are very real, and the whole package strikes exactly the right note.

[annmariestover · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I'm re-reading all the Anastasia books. Despite owning most of them when I was younger, they, like all of my other belongings, mysteriously disappeared. I'm almost positive this is going to be five-star rating, but I'm waiting until I finish, since I've forgotten a lot.

[jenneb_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It's weird, I didn't really think of these books as that funny when I was a kid. Anastasia reminds me a lot of myself at that age, so I probably just thought it seemed normal.

But now! I was reading this at lunch and I had to stop because I kept laughing and my co-workers were staring at me.

For example:
"Anastasia had a small pink wart in the middle of her left thumb. She found her wart very pleasing. It had appeared quite by surprise, shortly after her tenth birthday, on a morning when nothing else interesting was happening, and it was the first wart she had ever had, or seen.

"It's the loveliest color I've seen in a wart," her mother, who had seen others, said with admiration.

"Warts, you know," her father had told her, "have a kind of magic to them. they come and go without any reason at all, rather like elves."

I love her parents (and how terrifying is it that her mother and I are now the same age?). They are hilarious and awesome.

Oh yeah, and then you might cry at the end part.

[rockstarninja_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Even though I haven't read it since the 6th grade (1995) it was still a good book. And at 100 pages, I remember it taking forever to read the first time around though. While definitely geared at children, I didn't feel silly for reading it. The story dealt with first loves, changes at home, and even death; not too bad for so short a book.

[jfoster_sf · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a great story-it reminds me of the Alice books by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. This is a straightforward story of a 10 year old girl told from her point of view. The entire story is like being inside of her diary, and its interesting to see how she sees the world around her. I heard that there's more in this series and I'm definitely going to check them out, I think they are great reads for young readers.

[emscape · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Anastasia is a precocious 10 year old who really likes to write things down in her green notebook. Her mother is going to have a baby, and Anastasia is not really sure how she feels about that. I remember really liking the Anastasia books when I was younger, and through LT I have found that there were a few I've missed. I acquired them all and am now reading through them again. They are not quite as entertaining to me as an adult, but I still found this one enjoyable. I still really appreciate the way Anastasia's parents treat her and that the author doesn't try too hard to make her narrator "kid-like".

[thornestaff · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Anastasia Krupnik is the only child of a professor and a painter, and she makes lists of the things that have happened, the things that she likes, and the things that she hates in the year that she is 10 years old. It is fun to see how her lists of important events, likes, and dislikes evolve as the year progresses. And as someone who has spent time in Boston, it was great fun to read the references to Boston (though some things have changed since the book was written in 1979!). Anastasia is drawn realistically and well. I especially liked the poem she was assigned to write for class, and her teacher's reaction. A necessary addition to any children's library collection.

[ahooper04 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Funny. Young girls could relate to Anastasia's experiences with her family, and classmates.

[kgriffith-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The innocence, awkwardness, and candor of Anastasia and her contemporaries is handled with Lowry's seemingly effortless ease and humor, making these books a great read for anyone with a reading level at or above elementary school level.

[jenreidreads · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A fun book for young girls. It teaches a nice lesson without being too obvious about it, and the writing is great (not that I'd expect anything less from Lois Lowry). I wish I'd read the whole series as a kid instead of as a 20-something-year-old. My only hesitation to giving this a blanket recommendation to all elementary school kids is that some of the language was a little surprising for a book this level. Parents may want to screen it first (it's a very quick read). I don't think it's that bad, though.

[sharmon05 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Throughout the entire book we see the main character, Anastasia, go through a huge change. This provides the book with an amazing level of character development. In the beginning, she starts off being mean and not interested in having her mother be pregnant, but by the end she is very excited to become a sister. The plot in this story is very likely to happen. This makes this book a good example of a realistic fiction because students can relate to this book.

[candicebairn · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Anastasia is an annoying spoiled 10 yr old girl that is very self centered. As an adult I'm not very drawn to this book, and I don't think I would like it as an adult.

[jeriannthacker · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Anastasia is a quirky 10 year old, who likes making lists, but is fickle about everything else. Entertaining yet average series.