Anastasia's Chosen Career

October 26, 1987
The irrepressible and fun-loving Anastasia Krupnik is back in her seventh book. This time she's agonizing about a school assignment that requires her to write about her "future career.'' But Anastasia doesn't know what she wants to do when she grows up. The answer to this dilemma, she figures, is to enroll in a modeling course, where she will develop the needed self-confidence to explore future careers. At Studio Charmante, the course instructors are not quite what Anastasia expects, and she meets a unique group of teenagers, all of whom have enrolled in the class for different reasons. Lowry has written deftly of a more mature Anastasia, one who is still inquisitive, thoughtful and funny, but who is also beginning to travel a little further from home and to confront a world that isn't as secure as the Krupnik house in Cambridge. Ages 8-12.

September 1, 1987
Gr 4-8 -Back for her seventh appearance, Anastasia Krupnik is feeling all the gawky awkwardness of her seventh-grade height. A winter vacation assignment to write about "My Chosen Career" prompts her to sign up for a week-long modeling course on the strength of an ad promising increased poise, confidence, and maturity. The modeling school provides her with a new friend, feisty Henry Peabody ("Call me Henrietta and you die"); a new view of nerdy Robert Giannini, who rises to the occasion when a hero is called for; and some fresh insights into her own resourcefulness. Lowry, a skilled observer of adolescence, knows Anastasia to be both generous and realistic. In Henry Peabody Lowry adds another to her list of unforgettable characters, and Henry is responsible for a good part of Anastasia's education during this vacation week. It is she who insists, "You quit planning on a rich husband, Anastasia. You're gonna get rich on your own. You and me, if we want husbands, fine. But we won't need them." Lowry gives readers a fine mixture of wit and wisdom, offering funny adolescent dialogue that is true to their interests and language, and the insight of an affectionate and perceptive observer of the human scene. It is a mixture far too scarce in contemporary literature for early adolescents, who respond to the thoughtful, reflective side of Anastasia as well as the flip side. Dudley B. Carlson, Princeton Public Library, N.J.