Mister God, This Is Anna is a book by Sydney Hopkins under the pseudonym "Fynn" describing the adventures of Anna, a mischievous yet wise five and a half year old who Fynn finds as a runaway. Nineteen year old Fynn's mother takes her in, he then becomes her caretaker and closest friend. Fynn recounts his time spent with Anna, and gives a very personal account of her outpourings on life, mathematics, science and her mentor, Mister God.
The story begins on the streets of East End London in the mid-1930s. While roaming the docks at night, the author comes across a small girl sitting on the grating below a shop window. He sits down next to her, and from that moment on, his life is never the same. Unable to find out where she came from, Fynn takes the child home, only to discover she is an abused runaway. She spends her next three years as Fynn's inseparable companion.
The book gives an account of their friendship. Anna by nature is the inquisitor, the forever probing creature who likes to find a rhyme and reason for everything. Fynn being the student, has the task of having to follow her hard-to-understand, yet simple logic.
In the book, philosophical questions are investigated through the eyes of a child, proposing simple, commonsense solutions.
"At five years Anna knew absolutely the purpose of being, knew the meaning of love and was a personal friend and helper of Mister God. At six Anna was a theologian, mathematician, philosopher, poet and gardener. If you asked her a question you would always get an answer—in due course. On some occasions the answer would be delayed for weeks or months; but eventually, in her own good time, the answer would come: direct, simple and much to the point."
Anna lives her life complete, she is involved with everything. The gist of the book is the philosophy of a child who has the wisdom to comprehend more than what would be expected of her. "She never made eight years, she died by an accident. She died with a grin on her beautiful face. She died saying, 'I bet Mister God lets me into heaven for this', and I bet he did too." (quoted from chapter one of the book.)
The ending of the book describes Anna's death, and Fynn's bitterness about it. He visits Anna's grave and sees it to be a riot of flowers. At that moment he lets go of his angst against God. The answer he realizes is 'Anna is in my middle'.
This particular reference is to a conversation between Anna and Fynn. God is part of everybody and everybody is part of God. Fynn walks away from her graveyard enlightened.
While this book focuses a lot on the importance of religion and "Mister God" in Anna's life, this book is really about faith. Mister God, This Is Anna is a book about seeing beauty in things that may not identify as "beautiful" and about the absolute and pure faith Anna bestows to Mister God. Although the story is set in a Christian milieu, the themes that are discussed are not uniquely Christian.
The story begins on the streets of East End London in the mid-1930s. While roaming the docks at night, the author comes across a small girl sitting on the grating below a shop window. He sits down next to her, and from that moment on, his life is never the same. Unable to find out where she came from, Fynn takes the child home, only to discover she is an abused runaway. She spends her next three years as Fynn's inseparable companion.
The book gives an account of their friendship. Anna by nature is the inquisitor, the forever probing creature who likes to find a rhyme and reason for everything. Fynn being the student, has the task of having to follow her hard-to-understand, yet simple logic.
In the book, philosophical questions are investigated through the eyes of a child, proposing simple, commonsense solutions.
"At five years Anna knew absolutely the purpose of being, knew the meaning of love and was a personal friend and helper of Mister God. At six Anna was a theologian, mathematician, philosopher, poet and gardener. If you asked her a question you would always get an answer—in due course. On some occasions the answer would be delayed for weeks or months; but eventually, in her own good time, the answer would come: direct, simple and much to the point."
Anna lives her life complete, she is involved with everything. The gist of the book is the philosophy of a child who has the wisdom to comprehend more than what would be expected of her. "She never made eight years, she died by an accident. She died with a grin on her beautiful face. She died saying, 'I bet Mister God lets me into heaven for this', and I bet he did too." (quoted from chapter one of the book.)
The ending of the book describes Anna's death, and Fynn's bitterness about it. He visits Anna's grave and sees it to be a riot of flowers. At that moment he lets go of his angst against God. The answer he realizes is 'Anna is in my middle'.
This particular reference is to a conversation between Anna and Fynn. God is part of everybody and everybody is part of God. Fynn walks away from her graveyard enlightened.
While this book focuses a lot on the importance of religion and "Mister God" in Anna's life, this book is really about faith. Mister God, This Is Anna is a book about seeing beauty in things that may not identify as "beautiful" and about the absolute and pure faith Anna bestows to Mister God. Although the story is set in a Christian milieu, the themes that are discussed are not uniquely Christian.
