Her Story: Ladies In Literature with Jennifer Maschari

Her Story: Ladies In Literature is a special, month-long series on Pop! Goes The Reader in which we celebrate the literary female role models whose stories have inspired and empowered us since time immemorial. From Harriet M. Welsch to Anne Shirley, Becky Bloomwood to Hermione Granger, Her Story: Ladies In Literature is a series created for women, by women as twenty-four authors answer the question: “Who’s your heroine?” You can find a complete list of the participants and their scheduled guest post dates Here!

About Jennifer Maschari

Jennifer Maschari is a former classroom teacher who writes about kids who do brave things. Her novel for middle grade readers, The Remarkable Journey of Charlie Price, is available in early 2016. Other things she finds remarkable include fried pickles, exclamation points, and Youtube videos of animals holding hands. She lives with her husband and two stinky bulldogs in Ohio.

Author Links: Website ● Twitter ● Goodreads

I remember the first time I met Anastasia Krupnik, with her messy hair and large round glasses, the hidden freckles (the location of which she’d rather keep to herself) and the most pleasant wart on her left thumb.

Anastasia was perfectly imperfect – keeping a list of things she both hated and loved, prone to changing her mind and speaking it, capable of both thinking BIG and asking the right questions. When I reread Anastasia this past month, it was like catching up with an old friend – a friend I admired and looked up to, a friend whose self-confidence can inspire us all. So, in honor of Anastasia, I have put together a list (just like Anastasia would)!

Four Life Lessons From Anastasia Krupnik

1. It’s all right to change your mind.
Anastasia changes her mind ALL THE TIME. First, she likes Washburn Cummings, then she doesn’t, and then she kind of does again. She hates her teacher, Mrs. Westvessel, but then comes to like her again when she offers her a bit of kindness. She hates pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving (it smells like throw up) and then has a change of heart at Christmas. She decides to be Catholic (because she gets to wear a mini-wedding dress) but then decides that Confession is too much for her. What she’s really doing here is exploring who she is, what she thinks and what’s important to her.

2. It’s all right to keep your mind made up, too.
At the end of the book, she still hates liver. Me too, Anastasia.

3. Be confident in who you are.
Anastasia has a poetry outfit that she wears to a college class her father teaches. Anyone who has an outfit specifically earmarked for poetry has got to be pretty confident. And she doesn’t just keep this confidence to herself – she shows it to everyone around her – whether it’s reading her poem aloud to the class (and then getting an F!) or asking that the wallpaper in her room be hung upside down.

4. It’s okay to share your feelings in an honest way.
Secret bad thoughts are on Anastasia’s “Love List” for practically the whole book. But she doesn’t really keep them secret. Many of these thoughts revolve around her soon-to-be-born little brother, who Anastasia has decided to name One Ball Reilly. She readily shares her feelings with her parents. So often, women are expected to not rock the boat or be nice and hide more of the “unpleasant” feelings or opinions away. Anastasia doesn’t, and I love her for it.

Anastasia Krupnik is unabashedly and unapologetically her own person. She was a role-model to me back when I was ten-years-old. And it’s my hope that another ten-year-old girl meets Anastasia – with her messy hair and hidden freckles and large round glasses – and finds in her a confident, smart, and hilarious friend.

Title The Remarkable Journey of Charlie Price
Author Jennifer Maschari
Pages N/A
Genre Middle Grade, Contemporary, Fantasy, Magical Realism
Publisher Balzer + Bray
To Be Published 2016
Find It On Goodreads

A young boy struggling in the wake of his mother’s death follows his sister into a magical world identical to their own with one key difference – Mom is alive. But this idealized other world holds terrifying secrets, and he’ll have to defeat monsters both real and imagined or risk losing himself, his sister, and the true memory of his mother forever.