Anastasia Absolutely

Lowry returns to form with in the final book in her Anastasia series. Anastasia gets a dog and mistakenly puts it's.. um... droppings in a mailbox instead of the letter she intended to mail. She feels guilty, of course, and struggles with whether to call the post office to confess. At the same time, she is taking a course in "Values' and wrestles with questions like, "If you could shave one day off the end of your life and by doing so save the life of a baby in China, would you?" Anastasia has always had an interesting perspective, and these questions really highlight that as well as induce young readers to think about what they would do in the same situation. As always, the Krupnik family are wildly entertaining as well as realistic show more secondary characters. I am very pleased by how this series ended up. show less

Sadly, the Anastasia series ends with one of the weaker books in the collection. The entire story revolves around Anastasia making a mistake that no one would actually make... She is walking her dog while she goes to mail a package for her mother, and after picking up the dog poop in a plastic bag, she puts the dog poop in the public mail box and takes her mother's package home and throws it in the trash can. When she realizes her mistake, and discovers the next day that the mailbox she threw the poop in has been removed, she is sure she'll spend her life in prison for the crime of mail tampering.
No laugh out loud moments in this one, and not much involvement from her parents or friends either.

A book that mad me laugh out loud, very clever and well written. Not sure if all chldren reading this will get all the humor but for a children's book I was a bit surprised of how much I did enjoy this book. I think the book does portray the realities of today's children, Anastasia makes a mistake while she is walking her dog, she realizes that she must do the right thing of turning herself in, even if she may get into some serious trouble. The setting is modern, I believe in Massachusetts, her father is a professor for Harvard, very modern feel to the story. Controversial issue do arise, Anastasia has a Values class and she is asked many difficult questions such as will you give away one day in your life to save a baby even though the show more baby will be a criminal, questions dealing with ethics and morals but nothing dealing with language, drugs, or sex. There is stereotyping another story dealing with a dog. I believe the thought process of Anastasia when she is contemplating whether to or whether not too tell anyone about her horrible mishap.
Funny and entertaining with a good story about doing what is right, with a happy ending.
Ages 8 - 11 ..... show less

Trouble begins when Anastasia goes to the mailbox with two packages and her new doc, Sleuth. It's there that she accidentally puts the bag of dog droppings in the mailbox instead of her mother's package. When she realizes her mistake, Anastasia uses what she's learned in the values class at school to help her decide what to do. But when the police take the corner mailbox away, Anastasia's sure she's committed a crime that will land her in jail.

Less cute than its predecessors, more contrived. Still amusing but teetering on the edge. I'm glad this is the last one, and I'm not sure about reading the Sam wing of the series. Opinions? Wendy says yes, how about the rest of my kidlit coterie?

This one's a bit disappointing for the Anastasia series.