Anastasia, Absolutely by Lois Lowry

From the Publisher

Irrepressible Anastasia is in junior high now and participating in the "Values" curriculum through which students learn to make moral decisions. Early one morning she hits the Cambridge streets with her pooper-scooper to walk her new dog. In her half-awake groggy state Anastasia mixes up the two plastic bags she's carrying: one containing letters to be deposited in the mailbox for her mother and the other with her responsible morning gatherings. She's too embarrassed to call the post office to confess and she begins to feel more and more guilty and scared as she notices some intense local police activity in the vicinity of the mailbox. What will Anastasia do?

Publishers Weekly

After accidentally dropping a bag of what she refers to as dog "you know what" into a mailbox, the lively heroine of this popular series is sure that she has committed a federal offense. Ages 9-12. (Apr.)

"As usual, Lowry delivers tight, page-turning prose, plenty of humor, and characters right out of readers' neighborhoods."

School Library Journal

Gr 4-7-Another Anastasia adventure, this time adding a new dog and a Values class for the modern 13-year-old's coping skills. During an early morning walk with Sleuth, Anastasia inadvertently deposits a bag of dog poop into the corner mailbox instead of her mother's envelope of illustrations intended for her publisher. When she later tries to correct her mistake, she discovers the mailbox has been removed. Anastasia assumes she is to blame and that she has become a federal felon. Finally gathering the courage to call the post office to admit her mistake, she learns that she not only has the information that leads to the arrest of a mail bomber, but also that the poop parcel had actually prevented the explosion of a bomb planted right before her ``deposit.'' This effort falls short of the guffaws found in Lowry's earlier titles. The plot is pretty far-fetched and the dog-doo dilemma packs only so much humor. The Values class assignments tagged to the end of each chapter-scenarios drawn from modern life-are also a letdown. The ``wishy-washy'' responses from Anastasia and her family reveal neither humor nor depth of thought and are out of character from the Krupniks we have come to know. While children have come to expect more from this very talented author, the book is packed with believable dialogue and references to current groups and situations.-Claudia Cooper, Ft. Stockton Independent School District, TX

BookList

Now an eighth-grader, Anastasia Krupnik struggles with caring for her new puppy, Sleuth, answering sticky ethical questions for her classroom "Values" assignments, and owning up to a dark deed (well, an embarrassing disclosure). Walking Sleuth "early" one morning, she dutifully cleans up after her dog, but absentmindedly puts the plastic bag into the mailbox instead of the trash can. When the police haul the mailbox away and start asking questions, Anastasia is alarmed. Her eventual confession and her unexpectedly keen memory lead to the arrest of a mailbox bomber. Improbable? Well, yes, but the book has its moments of humor and insight. A must-read for Anastasia's many fans.

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