Anastasia's Album - Hardcover

Gr. 5^-8. Readers may not know who Anastasia is when they begin this book, but they will long remember her once they are finished. The cover of the handsomely conceived volume features a photograph of Anastasia, the last czar's youngest daughter, smiling slightly at her audience. Despite Anastasia's pearls and lace dress, readers will have no trouble identifying with her. Inside, they will find a design made to mimic a family photo album. The czar and his family were great photographers, and they spent many hours pasting pictures in their albums. Anastasia and her sisters added their own decorations of plants and flowers, which also appear here. The book moves in chronological order: there is Anastasia as a baby, then with her three older sisters and younger brother; as the clown of the family; on holiday; and later as a prisoner of the revolutionaries. Inset are color photos of imperial relics that have survived to become museum pieces: a doll, a gorgeous Fabergeegg, a toy cannon. The text, which features snippets of the writings of Anastasia and other Romanovs, sets Anastasia within her historical milieu and offers insight into both her character and her life. Young people who do not know the story of the Russian royal family may be shocked by its end; the book does not sensationalize the deaths, but the impact is powerful. The flap copy gives only a tantalizing bit of information about the author finding the imperial family's albums at the State Archives in Moscow and deciding that Anastasia's writings and photos would make a compelling book. How he went about compiling his materials would make an interesting story in its own right. Ilene Cooper

The execution of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family in 1918 has long been shrouded in mystery: ``For more than eighty years, the diaries, letters, and photo albums of the tsar's family were kept a secret.'' Now they are displayed in the State Archives in Moscow. Much of Brewster's book reproduces pictures from the photo album made by Anastasia, the youngest of the tsar's four daughters, and quotes many of her letters to her father and friends. It reveals not only Anastasia's daily life with her family but her wonderful sense of humor. The four daughters--Marie, Tatiana, Olga, and Anastasia--are shown posed (usually dressed identically) in lovely photographs; or riding bikes, swimming, sailing, walking in the snow, studying, painting, knitting. Many of the black-and-white photos were hand-colored by Anastasia. A particularly impish photo of the girls with their hats in their hands reveals their baldness after a bout of the measles. Although an epilogue discussing an impostor's claiming to be Anastasia detracts from the focus, this is a story of a close, happy family that does not foretell their violent end. (full-color and b&w photos, glossary, bibliography) (Nonfiction. 7+) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.