Anastasia, Absolutely

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?

Lois Lowry is known for her versatility and invention as a writer. She was born in Hawaii and grew up in New York, Pennsylvania, and Japan. After several years at Brown University, she turned to her family and to writing. She is the author of more than thirty books for young adults, including 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’s Medal, and the Mark Twain Award. She received Newbery Medals for two of her novels, NUMBER THE STARS and THE GIVER. Her first novel, A SUMMER TO DIE, was awarded the International Reading Association’s Children’s Book Award. Ms. Lowry now divides her time between Cambridge and an 1840s farmhouse in Maine. To learn more about Lois Lowry, see her website at www.loislowry.com