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A review by pagesofpins
Anastasia Again! by Lois Lowry
4.0
This, far more than book one, is the Anastasia I remember from my childhood. No wonder my friends and I remember her as a much-older-than us teenager, as in book two (published two years later), she is 12 rather than 10, frequently reads Cosmo, sips the foam from her dad's beer, is very curious and straightforward about sex (not that she knows much about what goes on), and has a fairly realistic teen disdain for what seem like arbitrary things to an adult (Robert's wearing rubber rain boots! UGH!).
Rather than a series of vignettes like the first book, we have an overarching plot. Anastasia and her family move to the 'burbs, and she must confront her stereotypes of what she thought suburban people were like. I remember the tower bedroom, the goldfish to whom she confides, the time she tells her little brother what a flasher is and he makes unfortunate use of this knowledge during a party. Apparently this book really freaked some conservative parents out in its day with its casual references to beer and Playboy, but most of that went over my head or seemed like no big deal when I was a kid. Anastastia herself is realistically drawn, and there are some hilarious stories in here. (Sam remains the hardest character to believe in, with a dense vocabulary even for a precocious two year old).
Rather than a series of vignettes like the first book, we have an overarching plot. Anastasia and her family move to the 'burbs, and she must confront her stereotypes of what she thought suburban people were like. I remember the tower bedroom, the goldfish to whom she confides, the time she tells her little brother what a flasher is and he makes unfortunate use of this knowledge during a party. Apparently this book really freaked some conservative parents out in its day with its casual references to beer and Playboy, but most of that went over my head or seemed like no big deal when I was a kid. Anastastia herself is realistically drawn, and there are some hilarious stories in here. (Sam remains the hardest character to believe in, with a dense vocabulary even for a precocious two year old).