Anna Was Here
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4.3 • 4 Ratings
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
Ten-year-old Anna Nickel is moving from Colorado to Kansas, and she is not happy about leaving her friends behind! This moving and often humorous middle grade novel is a coming-of-age story about family, faith, God’s love, and the meaning of home, perfect for fans of Katherine Paterson and The Penderwicks.
Ten-year-old Anna Nickel’s worst nightmare has come true. Her father has decided to move the family back to Oakwood, Kansas—where he grew up—in order to become the minister of the church there. New friends, new school, a new community, and a family of strangers await, and what’s even worse, it’s all smack-dab in the middle of Tornado Alley. Anna has always prided herself on being prepared (she keeps a notebook on how to cope with disasters, from hurricanes to shark bites), but she’ll be tested in Oakwood! This beautifully written novel introduces a family who takes God’s teachings to heart while finding many occasions to laugh along the way, and an irrepressible and wholesome ten-year-old who, with a little help from Midnight H. (her cat), takes control of her destiny in this funny kids book.
What happens when a girl who’s prepared for anything is faced with the one disaster she never planned for—a new home?
Moving to a New Town: Ten-year-old Anna is not happy about leaving her Colorado friends for a new school, a new community, and family she's never met in Oakwood, Kansas.A Coming-of-Age Story: Armed with her disaster-preparedness notebook, Anna tackles everything from tornadoes to making new friends with heartfelt and often hilarious results.Christian Fiction for Kids: Anna's family lives their faith as her father takes over as the town's new minister, navigating the challenges of a new church with laughter and love.Books About Faith: A heartwarming and wholesome story perfect for young readers, featuring a resourceful heroine, her beloved cat Midnight H., and lessons about the true meaning of home.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Culture shock hits hard when nine-year-old Anna Nickel has to leave her beloved Colorado home for Oakwood, Kans., where her minister father whose family roots are there is called to help the church community get "over a hump." "Gold Ribbon Safety Citizen" of the fourth grade, Anna prides herself on being prepared for Colorado emergencies like bears and wildfires, but her Safety Tips notebook holds no advice for the dangers of Oakwood, such as feuding relatives (including an especially hostile cousin) and rattlesnakes. Anna is lively and thoughtful, and her parents are sympathetic and credible, but her many relatives and church members are a little hard to keep straight. Liberally sprinkled with lists of tips for disasters ranging from earthquakes and floods to clouds and bees, Kurtz's (The Feverbird's Claw) book is distinguished by its comfortable treatment of God and faith, as Anna struggles to understand the unfairness and unpredictability of disasters natural and otherwise as well as of human beings: "What about all the people of Pompeii baking bread until fwoomp? Volcanic ash covered them." An appealing mix of humor and substance. Ages 8 12.
