Customer Reviews

Anna's World

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Anna's World is a historical novel aimed at the young teen audience, but there's plenty here to make an adult smile too. Young Anna Coburn's life is turned upside down in 1845 when floods destroy her father's store and bring typhoid to her town. Needing to focus on rebuilding their future, he places Anna in a Shaker community where she finds life restrictive and longs for the day when he'll take her away again.

Authors Wim Coleman and Pat Perrin paint a rich picture of this strange and self-contained religious community, during the decade that saw it reach its highest numbers in the United States . Though Anna at 14 is considered a woman, not a child, she is able to attend school as well as share in the herb-processing work and other activities. The traditions and history of the Shakers are presented with respect and, as far as I know of Shakers, with accuracy. The authors portray a few of the Shakers as very real people who had real lives in the world before sequestering themselves in this celibate community.

The story deals with moral choices, but the public and private dilemmas are presented with a clever hand and never sound preachy. I was delighted to find Henry David Thoreau as a character in the book, introducing the themes of slavery and the Mexican War. When Anna's father eventually sends for her and brings her to his sumptuous new Boston home, these worldly issues have a surprising impact on her and, young as she is, she has to make some adult choices about how to live her life.

If you think a book about an all-but-defunct religious community sounds dull, read it for yourself and you'll be pleasantly surprised. Anna is a well-rounded main character, mature but not beyond a bit of mischief when the occasion arises. Her courage in the face of danger, her commitment to living the life that's right for her, provide a model for growing up that's as fresh as a new day.

I took one star off because of a concern that's admittedly subjective: in the epilogue, Anna reminisces about her father's position of conscience during the Civil War. I felt that his stance ws introduced with too little discussion, so that her acceptance of it was not well-grounded. This could (and should) be an opportunity for thoughtful discussion in the family if you bring this book home to a teen.

Linda Bulger, 2009

When a book of fiction brings history to life, the reader always benefits!

Anna is sent to live among the Shakers after a flood destroys her hometown and her father's store, and while she is recovering from typhoid fever. She is 14, and wants to rejoin her father, who is trying to build a new life in Boston.

The Shakers have firm rules organizing their society, and Anna slowly adapts to these conventions, learning the ropes of Shaker life and worship. Eventually, she is reunited with Papa, but the bright lights of Boston do not turn out to be as attractive as she may have wished. People are not always who they seem.

Anna's World, by Wim Coleman and Pat Perrin, was written to be an entertaining story for young adults (YA) as well as a tribute to the Shakers, a religious group that currently has, in 2009, three remaining members. Known for their plain dress, their commitment to do their jobs well, their religious songs and dance, their opposition to slavery and war, and their dedication to producing fine herbs and stout, well-made furniture (particularly chairs), Anna goes from observing their customs first as an outsider, then as an insider. She evolves with them and, in some small ways, they evolve with her.

Authors Coleman and Perrin clearly are enamored by the Shakers, and in Anna's World they are assisted with the fictional presence of Henry David Thoreau, who takes time away from his lone contemplations at Walden Pond to visit the Shaker community and meet Anna, and later see her again in Boston as he delivers his famous polemic against the Mexican-American War. Readers of this book will become more familiar with both Shakers and Thoreau, although the story itself is wrapped around the typical YA literature themes of growing up, looking for understanding, making hard decisions, friendship, and fitting in.

This isn't an overly religious book. Discussions of God the Father and Mother come through Anna's discussions with the female leadership. As far as I can tell, the authors did a nice job with issues relating to historical accuracy.

I have to admit a bit of rolling the eyes as I started reading this book, but I ended up being captivated by Anna's story. What was she going to accomplish with the Shakers, and in Boston? Does Papa ever listen to that wise (now) 15 year old? Is Eldress Clara a dictator or not? Does Brother Seth have a memory problem, or something more sinister?

I would suspect that any new visitor to a Shaker community, even in 1840, would get an orientation to the history of this church. This would have been helpful to share with the reader, since few kids today would have any sense at all as to what a "Shaker" was. Alas, in a few years, the extinction of Shakers from this planet will make this book a reflection on a different time and culture... that one can only read about. Hence, the value of Anna's World in our school libraries.

This book is written with the Tween reader in mind, yet as an adult, I found it enjoyable. I always like a book that can teach me things and this one did just that. I have known about Shakers and their wonderful woodcrafts but I never knew they were versed in herbs and what they could do for medicine. I also didn't know they were Separatists in that they did not live as husband and wife or that they took in orphans.

Anna Coburn, age 14, is left by her father with the Shaker Community after her town suffered a horrific flood. She doesn't want to be there with all the rules the Shakers have. Life is dull to Anna.

She makes friends with another young girl, Sally who is a monitor in the Shaker school. Yet, there are some things that happen in the community like Henry David Thoreau speaking at their school and this catches Anna's interest.

Sally talks Anna into helping her to run away so she can marry the boy she loves and Anna's father finally sends a servant to get her. Her father has been able to start a new business in Boston and has married and is now able to have Anna with him. Anna goes willingly but soon finds Boston is not the town or the life for her.

ANNA'S WORLD tells of life in the late 1840's, the war with Mexico and the lifestyle of the Shakers. It is written in easy to understand language. It is a good book for the Tween in your life to learn about this period of history in America.

What a wonderful story this is. It is very insightful concerning the maturation process of this young woman but it is also very exciting and thrilling. Anna has many adventures, some of them really quite dangerous. The story covers the time in her life from 1845 and 1846 with an epilogue in 1888 to bring us up to date on what happened later in Anna's life. Anna had been weak and slow to completely recover from her encounter with "the bad water". Many people in her small community died from typhoid and the store which Anna's father owned was ruined by the flood waters. Consequently he sent 14 year old Anna to a nearby Shaker community so that she would have shelter and care while he worked out what he would do to earn a living. This story is about the changes that take place in the life of this young woman as she finds herself living in a world completely foreign to her.

Because of her age Anna is treated as a woman by the Shaker community, not as a child. The rules for living among the Shakers are numerous and Anna has a hard time adhering to many of them. She is always waiting for her father to send the letter which will say that he is coming to take her away from the community and into his new home. In the meantime Anna begins to notice that not everything the Shakers do is hard or unpleasant for her and she slowly begins to find her place among the people who live there.

I liked the character of Anna. She is a very mature 14 year old woman and has a gentle nature who, while being somewhat stubborn, was always presented by the authors as someone willing and eager to learn. For me the key to my enjoyment of this book was that Anna had a thirst for knowledge of all kinds and she never stopped learning throughout the entire book. I enjoyed the insertion of Henry David Thoreau as a character whose discussions with Anna made profound changes in her way of thinking. It was interesting to see that person interjected into this novel to explain why Anna began to understand large world concepts which she wanted to have a hand in changing. This is a story of a young woman who learns that faith and belief will change your life if you open your heart and mind to listen to God's calling for you individually.

I like to be aware of books available for my grandchildren to read. I also like to have books available for them in my home. I think that this book would probably be best for Young Readers slightly older than my two granddaughters, who are 8 and 9 years old. But I will certainly discuss the story with them and have the book available for them to read on their own. I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before one or both girls want to read about Anna's World.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

This story is set in the 1840s and takes up the daily life of a Shaker community of that time.

Fourteen year old Anna is sent to live in a Shaker community after that a devastating flood destroys her father's business. The lifestyle there is difficult, but Anna has a wonderful teacher who introduces her to poetry and mathematics. The community has rigid rules and Anna plans to defraud it.

She then leaves the community to live in upper-class Boston and finds out that life there is even more challenging than she had expected it to be. Anna learns about the realities of life, war and politics. This is an educational and entertaining read for young adults.

Joyce Akesson, author of Love's Thrilling Dimensions and The Invitation

As an adult writer who dabbles in on-line reviews, I am often told that I should be paid for my work. Now, I am certainly not arguing this point. I can think of nothing better than to be graciously paid for the achievement of putting thoughts through pen to paper. Writing enables one for all time to capture an elicited emotion like an elixir in the sentimental little bottle that the unnamed narrator in Du Maurier's Rebecca refers to that once uncorked would allow one to conjure and relive a favorite moment from the past. My reviews are collected then like bottles of tincture on a shelf--they hone my skill of exposition and simultaneously act as a record of what I have seen, read and more importantly what my brain dwelt upon at that moment in time. I can, so to speak, decanter what had passed through my mind and juxtapose it with a specific time reference--personally or universally historic--in terms of milestones in creative development. It's a choice.

In this context, `getting paid' becomes the least important aspect of the entire operation. The frustration and joy of creating such a record surely surpasses any remuneration; the wonder of being followed and read a delightful side benefit. Nevertheless, the age-old discussions revolving around whether or not the actual satisfaction of doing a job one loves should be payment enough will continue with or without my opinions. The question reduces to whether or not anything of merit should be attempted without the promise of monetary compensation. What then makes an endeavor, any endeavor worthwhile? Said in another way, should innocent ideals that promote happiness and wellbeing be scrapped because they do not reach for or glean materialistic glamour and status in the everyday world? For me, the posing of this question and all its implications seems to be the theme of the young adult novel by husband and wife team Wim Coleman and Pat Perrin entitled "Anna's World."

Anna, a young girl recovering from typhoid fever in 1845 Massachusetts, recovers at a Shaker village while she awaits the return of her father, a small town shopkeeper who must rebuild his livelihood in the wake of the natural disaster of flood. Unsettled due to her alien and austere surroundings, Anna finds it difficult to assimilate into the Shaker community of celibate brothers and sisters who believe that work and the sharing of the real time fruits of labor would insure the construction of a veritable paradise on earth. For her, the rules stifle and the day that her father will come and take her away cannot come soon enough.

However, as each day passes she realizes what many adults still have not discovered in our modern day. To live means to change and grow--the desire for a routine scenario of which other people approve and in which one feels safe and secure means only stagnation and an emphasis on mundane problems and issues that indeed link us to the miseries of the world, but do not allow us the infinite license to create and shape our own lives by nurturing the needs of the soul. A world that does not change affords us the ability to control that world, but in the same instance does not allow growth. Paradoxically, the absence of growth suggests the absence of fully living.

When Anna returns to her life with her father, she finds that her Shaker life has infused her with a desire for simple joys that are not forthcoming in wealthy Bostonian society. Authors Coleman and Perrin masterfully build on Anna's half-constructed view of the world with a marvelous juxtaposition of what really matters and what matters naught as seen through Anna's growing sensibilities. Well done!

The pages of Anna's World describe the everyday life and morals of the Shaker community. It touches upon the transcendental lifestyles of the great minds of the time--most notably by the presence of civil disobedient Henry David Thoreau of Walden Pond fame. There is a modern corollary between today's military operations in Iraq and those of that period's Mexican War that the author's present quite nicely from the burgeoning awareness of the young protagonist. But most of all it serves its readers well with its delightful message of a young woman's coming to terms with what will make her happy in life in spite of the past's expectations and those of other people who do not understand the wonder of simple joys.

Bottom line: Anna's World is a fast and fascinating novel that will definitely enchant young readers. Although rich as a descriptive simulation of a community of men and women that still exist (although just barely) today and evocative of a memoir of the history of a young America from the vantage points of not only the young girl but prominent personalities of that time, the story's main strength is in its presentation of a lovely coming of age tale that focuses on living life to the fullest extent with an eye on the needs of the soul. Parents should be aware of an anti-war sentiment that echoes the current Afghanistan/Iraq conundrum. However, no matter what side of the issues your sentiments lay, Anna's World's true value is in the empowering of the young protagonist to make good choices that reflect her growing integrity and nobility. Highly recommended.

Diana Faillace Von Behren

"reneofc"

So far, and I stress so far, this YA book has gleaned three national awards. It was Top Award-Winner in the "Fiction & Literature: Young Adult Fiction" category. The work was a Silver Medal Winner, 2008 - Moonbeam Children's Books Award and First Place Winner in the "Teen Fiction" category from Reader Views Literary Awards. To be honest, it deserved each of these and so very much more. This is one of the better YA books I have had the pleasure of reading over the past five years.

As you will note, the plot of this story has pretty well been covered by some marvelously written reviews here so I will not linger on that aspect of this work overly long. Anna, a young girl, age 14 during the 1840s is displaced after a disastrous flood wipes out most of her town and the dreaded disease typhus takes many members of her community...indeed Anna herself barely recovers from this disease that took to many in those days. Her father, a successful business man is financially destroyed and must seek to rebuild his life in Boston. There being nowhere else to place Anna, he turns her over to a Shaker Community for care and education until he can get his life together and send for her. Anna's life adventure starts here as does this work by Wim Coleman and Pat Perrin.

There are aspects of this book that truly shine and should be noted. The setting and time frame the story takes place was during an extremely tumultuous period of our history. As a background for the story we have the dubious and questionable war with Mexico; which was more or less a training session for the horrific Civil War to come. The Shakers, who were quite opposed to the practice of slavery highlight one of the darkest periods of our young nation. We have our young heroine learning hard lessons in life, not the least being that not all people are good, not all people are what they seem and not all that glitters is gold. These are hard lessons, but lessons the youth of today still face.

Probably of the greatest fascination to me personally is the wonderful research that went into the writing of this work. I am not by any stretch of the term an "expert" in this area, but my wife is, and I have learned much through sheer osmosis over the years. While the Shaker Community featured here is fictional, it is a composite of a number of these communities and the authors have gone to great lengths to be as accurate in the portrayal of Shaker life, philosophy, religious beliefs, ceremonies, ethics and general life style. As one reviewer has pointed out, there are only three members of this sect left today, and it is an interesting part of our history; a part that our youth should be aware of. Coleman and Perrin have certainly done their research and done it well, leaving few stones unturned.

The authors have skillfully woven the presence of Henry David Thoreau into the story. Thoreau was quite fascinated and indeed sympathetic to the Shaker way of life and in reading his writings and knowing a bit of the Shaker way of life, one can readily see why. H.D.T. is one of my favorites so even though we have a fictional account of his involvement; it was never the less gratifying. Again, the authors have done a very nice job is representing and portraying this unique writer and American literary legend.

Also of note, if you read this work carefully, you will find that the hopes, dreams, attitudes and problems facing the young of that day, are not all that much different than we find today...yes, the circumstances are a bit different and the trappings are certainly not the same, but the basic challenges are the same. Children at this age change so quickly and mature so fast that you can almost see the changes happen month by month. Attitudes of today are quickly replaced by attitudes six months down the road as the maturation process takes place. The authors have been quite skillful in portraying these phenomena through Anna.

Now we have the question....is this a girl's book? I can remember years ago that one of the most popular books in our school and town library, for both boys and girls was Dorothy Gilman's wonderful work Girl in Buckskin. This work, Anna's Life is of the same ilk, and I see no problem what so ever in young boys enjoying this one as much as young girls. As a matter of fact, this is one of those novels that while targeted for the YA market, is just as interesting and just as valid for readers of all ages. Hey, I am an old guy and I enjoyed ever word of it. Good writing is good writing and a well told story is a well told story and there is no getting around it.

Now this is not a religious book although that aspect is an important part of the story...hey, we are talking Shakers here; one cannot be separated from the other. As one reviewer has pointed out, most of the typical teen problems of today are addressed in this work and we find that after all this time things are really not all that different. The young reader here will be able to relate to some of the trials and tribulations in this work as well as receiving a wonderful history lesson. The book moves quite quickly and I doubt if there will be much reading boredom involved with this one.

This work would be an ideal read for a class project and certainly belongs in every public and school library, as well in the personal collection of any young (or old for that matter) reader.

I am quite enthusiastic about this work. It is very, very well written, informative, entertaining and a pure joy to read. I do recommend this one highly.

Don Blankenship

The Ozarks

Historical novels with a compelling story bring the past to life for kids when they open up a book like Anna's World and I'm so thankful that the authors Wim Coleman and Pat Perrin have shared their talent for weaving a tale set long ago in such a way that children will enjoy it. Centered around a little 14-year-old girl named Anna in mid-19th Century America, we see through the eyes of this girl who is just trying to figure out what life is supposed to be for her all the while turmoil and angst is stirred up around her. When Anna gets sent to live with the "Shakers," her entire worldview is turned on its head and it changes her -- both for the better and for the worse. This book will keep you on the edge of your seat as you turn page after page to see what happens next. PERFECT for that curious child in your life who is looking for an adventure!

I am 71 years old and don't often read books from this genre. I read the book in one setting as I couldn't seem to put it down. Not only is it well written but the characters are believable. I connected with Anna right away. I too was removed from my family and placed with a religious group (in my case Catholic nuns) and the authors depiction of Anna's response to this event is so very real. All of the information about Shaker society in the 1840's was a bonus. Well done. I recommend this book to people of all ages.

I read Anna's World because I was sitting at the counter of my favorite coffee shop, and the owner had a copy of the book in a display rack. Although I often read young adult literature, it's usually fantasy, so I wasn't sure I'd like an historical novel about a Shaker community. But I had heard of the Shakers and wanted to find out more about them. I certainly did not expect to read the book from cover to cover without stopping. Anna is such an interesting and feisty character that I was with her all the way. She reminded me that the best way to insure that life will always be interesting and exciting is by remaining curious and open minded. My thanks to the authors.