- Home
- Childrens & Young Adults
- Anna's World Reviewed By Andrea Coventry Of Bookpleasures.com
- Home
- Anna's World Reviewed By Andrea Coventry Of Bookpleasures.com
Anna's World Reviewed By Andrea Coventry Of Bookpleasures.com
- By Andrea Coventry
- Published September 6, 2009
- Childrens & Young Adults ,
Andrea Coventry
Reviewer Andrea Coventry: Andrea is a Montessori child - turned educator. An avid reader and writer, she is published on several websites. Click Here to find a listing of Andrea's sites where you can find many of her writing contributions.
Author: Wim Coleman & Pat Perrin
ISBN:
978-1-935178-06-04
Publisher: Chiron Books
Click Here To Purchase Anna's World
Anna's
World is an entertaining young adult novel about a fourteen
year-old girl named Anna Coburn. Still weak from recovering from the
typhoid fever that swept through her village, Anna is sent to live
with the Shakers while her father heads off to Boston to rebuild his
business. No one is left in their small town of Martindale, due to
the typhoid and the flood, and Father wants her to make a full
recovery while he is busy working. He also appreciates the fine
education offered by the Shakers.
Anna is not too keen on
living with the Shakers as she tries to learn their unique ways. She
is trying to get used to the idea of God being both Mother and
Father. At the tender age of fourteen, she is already considered to
be an adult in the Shaker community, which means playing and skipping
is not an option. She is used to having conversations with adults,
discussing politics and the like, but the Shakers do not engage in
such talk.
Anna's favorite person becomes Sister Zenobia, the
schoolmistress who wasn't always a Shaker. Sister Zenobia is highly
accomplished, able to fluently read and write in Greek, Hebrew,
Latin, French, German, and Italian. She is a painter, composer, and
pianist. And she introduces Anna and the other children to a
brilliant man named Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau's wisdom haunts Anna
over the next few years as she grows up and becomes better acquainted
with the world.
Anna also gets pulled into secretive deeds
with another Shaker girl named Sally, leading her to bond with the
shopkeeper Brother Seth. Only, Brother Seth is not as pious and
wonderful has he appears, causing Anna some serious
problems.
Anna's feelings about the Shakers are put to
the test when she is finally able to rejoin her father in Boston,
joining the upper-class society. Will she decide to stay with her
family, or will she go back to the Shaker ways she once
shunned?
Anna's World is very informative, as it combines
Shaker traditions from the time to paint a relatively accurate view
of their lifestyle. It is thought-provoking, bringing up political
situations of the time that can still be applicable today. Teachers,
even through high school, can use this novel to elicit conversation
in English classes, history classes, philosophy classes, and religion
classes. Families can read this book together to provide a
springboard for conversation about personal safety, family views on
religion, philosophy, and politics, and even the future dreams of the
children.
Coleman and Perrin write in a manner that is easy to
read, for both adults and children. The voice of a fourteen year-old
girl really comes out through the narrative, making Anna easy to
relate ti. The awards this book has won are well deserved.
Click Here To Purchase Anna's World