The Annals of Ann

A young girl decides she will become famous by writing a diary, and the result is one of the most endearing portraits of childhood ambition ever committed to page. Ann is eleven years old, perpetually amused by the adults around her, and convinced that her observations about life, love, and her large extended family are destined for greatness. Inspired by her sophisticated cousin Eunice's journal, Ann begins chronicling her days with irrepressible wit and wholesale confidence in her own importance. She navigates crushes, family dynamics, and her best friend Rufe's complicated romantic entanglements with the bemused detachment of a philosopher and the unshakeable self-regard of a future legend. Written as a diary in the early twentieth century, the book captures something true about the way children see the world: with perfect seriousness, absolute humor, and an unearnable certainty that their inner lives are historic events. Sharber gives Ann a voice that feels utterly alive, generous and silly and sharp by turns. It's a book for anyone who remembers what it felt like to be young and convinced the world was waiting for their story.