Lois Lowry

New and old: Lois Lowry doesn't fail to please. Anastasia Krupnik is a series that I have missed somehow along the way. I loved it. I loved that she kept a list of things that she loved and hated and that entries routinely were crossed out and shuffled from category to category. Anastasia is a bright girl, perhaps too bright for the adults around her, and her 10th year is full of the stuff of life--birth, death, love and loss. What's not to enjoy?

I enjoyed The Willoughbys with its spoof of old-fashioned, orphaned characters from old-fashioned children's books. I wasn't so certain that children who didn't grow up with Anne of Green Gables, Tom Sawyer or Heidi would get the joke. Still, they may enjoy the idea of getting rid of their parents by sending them on vacation or the happy ending when the children are adopted by a rich candy maker.