From Anna

From Anna by Jean Little, 1972. Anna Solden is the youngest in a family of five children living in Frankfort, Germany during the 1930s. Anna has a difficult relationship with her family, partly because she is the youngest of all of them and partly because they treat her badly. It’s not that there is no affection for Anna, but her mother and siblings think of her as not being very smart or capable. She is physically clumsy and has learning difficulties at school, and they have no patience for her. Her teacher at school thinks that she’s just “stubborn” and doesn’t want to learn, but Anna knows that she really tries. For some reason that Anna doesn’t understand, other people just seem to have an easier time than she does. She’s also awkward at home, and she seems unable to learn things like sewing or knitting, like the other girls. Anna just doesn’t understand how the others can do things, like finding the eye of a needle to put a thread in it. There is something wrong with Anna, but…