Anna Books in Order

The Anna books offer a warm, closely observed look at childhood just before World War I, when gas lamps still flickered in city streets and motorcars were a novelty. Inspired by stories of Mary Downing Hahn’s mother, they follow a lively German American girl through the small dramas that shape a year of growing up.

In Anna All Year Round, Anna lives with her parents in a Baltimore row house. The book is arranged in four seasonal sections, each made up of short, satisfying episodes. Anna longs for a beautiful new winter coat, races on roller skates down a hill that is far too steep, braves a solo trolley ride, and secretly plans a birthday party she is not supposed to have. She struggles with math, envies a snobbish classmate’s perfect clothes, and tries to puzzle out adult conversations that slip into German when the topics are not meant for children’s ears.

Day by day, readers see a bustling neighborhood where delivery wagons still share the streets with early automobiles and where electric lights are only beginning to replace gas lamps. Anna’s parents are loving but firm, proud of their heritage, and determined that their daughter behave like a proper young lady even when she would rather climb trees or race boys.

The second book, Anna on the Farm, sends her out of the city for a sweltering summer week. Anna is thrilled to visit her aunt and uncle’s farm in rural Maryland, eager for the kind of vacation her friends brag about. What she does not expect is Theodore, her uncle’s orphaned nephew, who resents city visitors and plans to make sure Anna knows she does not belong.

Their back‑and‑forth pranks, from locked henhouses to dares in the hayloft, give the story its spark. At the same time, farm chores, livestock, and long days outdoors give Anna a freedom she has never had at home, even as she bumps into the era’s expectations about how girls should dress and behave. Bit by bit, rivalry with Theodore turns into respect and real friendship.

Taken together, the Anna books sketch a world on the edge of change, seen entirely through a child’s eyes. They are gentler than Hahn’s ghost stories but share the same care for small emotional truths: the sting of embarrassment, the pride of doing something hard, and the comfort of knowing that, even after mistakes, you are loved. They are especially welcoming for newer chapter‑book readers who want history wrapped in everyday adventure rather than battles and dates.