Book 13: Anna on the Farm

Mary Downing Hahn: Anna on the Farm. 152 pages. Illustrations by Diane de Groat.

The plot is about 9 yo Anna who visited her uncle's farm in the 1910s without her parents. There is also an older orphaned boy. Both in bibs. Autobiographical.

My first book with a girl in bibs as main character. In fact she wore the bibs of Theodore. Lots of bib scenes, swimming in underwear, farm work, spanking and else.
First she wore a dress, but gets dirty and so she had to wear overalls. First she didn't like those boys pants.

Most parts until page 60 can be read at Google Books.

I have read almost half of it and it's quite good. The book is written in simple English with quite big letters and has some full page illustrations (which could be better). One small photo of the author and 3 boys, one in worn bibs in 1914). She looks much older and cleaner than the girl on the book cover.


It's not the first book with Anna, but probably the only one with bibs.

I have read another book before that by Gary Paulsen (depicting a boy in bibs and also farm contents) but no bib scenes mentioned there. However good description of farm life and 2 brothers and I like it. Paulsen also wrote Harris and Me (see book entry 2).

Update Dec 17: Completely read. The book (or half of it) is quite good. Some funny parts, the drawings showing some key scenes. And a good description of the one week farm holiday of Anna and playing with the boy. But no special facts that this should be set in the 1910s. Beginning and end without bibs. I marked the following pages:

P 26, 32 dressing on bibs, 60 braids, 71 acts like a boy, 78 pulling pigtails, 88 feeling of wet overalls, 97 two other boys (don't like girls in boys pants).