Anna Shares

by Barbara Baker

Perfectly pitched to toddlers, this hand-sized book introduces Anna?exuberant, strong- willed, and lovable. In Anna Shares, Anna finds it too hard to share with her friend Justin. After he goes home,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0525471111
• ISBN13: 9780525471110
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Dutton Children's Books
• Length: 24 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.3" x 7.0"
• Age Range: 2 to 4 years

Customer Reviews

Reality tale, not morality tale

Well, the book is out of print, so I don't know that there is much point to this, but I do want to defend this lovely little book. As the other commenters have noted, the ending of this book is a rather unexpected twist -- Anna seems to have learned what her mother wants her to do (she role-plays sharing with her toys), yet in the end she gets to do what she wants to do (she eats all the cookies). Thus, it is a story about the way that toddlers really act, not about how we wish they would act in some imaginary world where children magically learn complex social skills with just a few words of gentle encouragement. It's certainly not a book that will appeal to every parent. However, I look at Anna's actions as being very much like Cookie Monster on Sesame Street. Just because Cookie Monster is unfailingly selfish and can't control his desires doesn't mean that all of the Cookie Monster skits are horrible. The difference here is that the behavior is not as over-the-top silly as Cookie Monster's. But we and our child found it funny in the same way.