Anna's World

by Wim Coleman, Pat Perrin

Overview

The United States of America in the late 1840s — a nation torn by the crime of slavery and a war of conquest in Mexico. Fourteen-year-old Anna Coburn doesn't want to grapple with such terrible issues. Just growing up seems awful enough. Forced from her home and away from her beloved father, Anna is sent to live among the stern people called Shakers. Their strange ways and strict lifestyle are both appealing and difficult for the bright, headstrong Anna. When reunited with her father, Anna is plunged into upper-class Boston life, where she faces a troubling mystery, new responsibilities, deadly danger, and events that will affect not just herself and her loved ones, but a country about to come apart at the seams.

A novel for ages 12-up, also loved by many adults. With a cast that includes Henry David Thoreau, a perceptive Shaker schoolmistress, and a murderous false friend, Anna's World is a powerful coming of age story, widely praised for its vivid characters, gripping plot, and moral stature.

Awards in national competitions: Moonbeam Children's Books Awards; U.S.A. Book News "Best Book" Awards; Reader Views Literary Awards; Eric Hoffer Book Awards. Included in the Renaissance Learning Accelerated Reader quiz program. A Study Guide and Author Notes are free downloads at chironbooks.com.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781935178194
Publisher:	Coleman Perrin
Publication date:	07/01/2010
Series:	Anna's World Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	282
File size:	661 KB
Age Range:	12 Years

About the Author

Wim Coleman and Pat Perrin have written novels, nonfiction, plays, and essays for adults and younger readers. Their mainstream novels have appeared in foreign translations and have been taught in several major university courses. Their books and plays for young readers are in many school and public library collections and on required or recommended school reading lists. See more about the authors and other books for young readers at chironbooks.com

What People are Saying About This

Lucina Kathmann

"Touches a nerve. I believe it comes very close to the heart of the human situation."--(Lucina Kathmann, International Vice-President, International PEN)

Beverly Donofrio

"A story full of wisdom, spirit, and spunk. Young readers will love this book and be sorry to see it end. I was."--(Beverly Donofrio, author of Riding in Cars with Boys and Looking for Mary)

Editorial Reviews

After Martindale is hit by a flood and everyone she knew is either dead or gone, Anna is sent to live with Shakers by her father. Shakers are stern and strange religious people that Anna doesn't fit in with. All she wants is to go back to Martindale and have everything as it was. But that's not possible. All Anna can do is wish for her father to find a job and come get her. While living with the Shakers, a soon-to-be-famous man visits and Anna finds out that her schoolmistress was once a free-spirit who came to live in Goshen. Anna wonders how someone who had written inspirational poetry could live with the strict Shakers.
Anna also meets Sally, another girl who doesn't fit in with the Shakers. Sally wants to run away from Goshen and marry her sweetheart. But Shakers aren't supposed to marry. Sally manages to convince Anna to help pass letters between her sweetheart and her without having any of the elders find out.
Anna asks an old friend of her father, Brother Seth, to help her with this task. With Anna's and Brother Seth's help Sally and her sweetheart manage to arrange a midnight meeting, a meeting that goes horribly wrong.
One of these friendships proves dangerous to Anna, but she manages to escape with her life. Then her father comes and takes her to Boston, where she has to learn a whole new set of rules. But her year living with the Shakers has changed Anna and she can't seem to fit in here either. And what's worse, the murderous friend follows Anna to Boston. Can Anna get away with her life a second time?
"Anna's World" by Wim Coleman and Pat Perrin was much better than my expectations, mostly because I don't like books that occur during war times, usually becausethere are long and boring details about battles that I don't care about. But "Anna's World" had none of that and the only place where the Mexican War is mentioned is in a speech that really wasn't that bad. Also, the book is written so well that I flipped pages faster than I ever have. I haven't ever liked a historical fiction so much and definitely recommend this one to everyone.
—Neha N. Kashmiri

Reader Views

Gr 8 Up

This story accurately portrays life in a Shaker community and the fabric of America during the 1840s. Anna's world has been very different since her father's business was destroyed by a flood. When he leaves to build a new business in Boston, the 14-year-old is sent to live in a Shaker community. There she leads a restrictive life, with too much work and too little fun. Still, she manages to bend the rules and get into mischief, such as helping a friend elope. She also discovers that the storekeeper is stealing from the West Family Shakers. Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Nathaniel Hawthorne make cameo appearances, and Anna, through her teacher, is introduced to them. When she finally leaves for Boston to live with her father and his new wife, she is overwhelmed. She attends a lecture by Thoreau and learns about the war with Mexico and American slavery. As time passes, she begins to understand the orderly conventions of the Shakers and longs to return to their rule-bound but idealistic life. The story is well written and has good character development. The overall themes of abiding friendship, growing up, and personal moral choices are strong but not didactic. An excellent ancillary choice for social-studies classes.-Sharon Morrison, Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Durant, OK

School Library Journal

In 1845, 14-year-old Anna is placed with Shakers while her father regains his financial footing. Initially resentful of the restrictive ways of this industrious religious community, she comes to appreciate their kindness, isolationist attitude and pacifism. When her father finally sends for her, she finds he is manufacturing munitions for the Mexican War-upon which discovery Henry David Thoreau conveniently plays a walk-on role in Anna's recognition of the moral dilemma of wars. Thus are morality issues and historic details often added in a heavy-handed manner that detracts from the presentation. Because for most of the story Anna sees the Shakers from an outsider's simplified point of view, readers never get the opportunity to find out what may have motivated this vibrant, unusual group or Anna's eventual decision about her own future. Many characters remain flat and predictable. Curiously, the authors even chose to create fictional Shaker songs rather than to use well-documented real ones. However, because books about the Shaker community are rare, this may be a useful purchase in spite of its regrettably banal flavor. (Historical fiction. 12 & up)

Kirkus Reviews