Anastasia, Ask Your Analyst

Reach for this book when your middle-schooler starts feeling like a stranger in their own skin or experiences the sudden, overwhelming mood swings of early puberty. It is a perfect choice for the child who is beginning to question their own identity and feels like their parents just don't get the 'new' version of them. In this installment of the beloved series, twelve-year-old Anastasia Krupnik is convinced she is losing her mind and needs professional therapy. Instead of a real doctor, she finds a plaster bust of Sigmund Freud at a garage sale and begins 'consulting' him about her chaotic seventh-grade life, including a disastrous science project involving gerbils and her evolving relationship with her precocious younger brother. It is a humorous, deeply relatable look at the internal life of a pre-teen that normalizes the 'weirdness' of growing up while maintaining a warm, supportive family backdrop. Parents will appreciate the emotional honesty and the way it validates a child's need for privacy and self-reflection during the transition to adolescence.