Mr. God This Is Anna - a True Story

"Mister God, this is Anna" is a true story about an intriguing four year old named Anna who is found abandoned in London's fog-shrouded docks by a 19 year old teenager named Fynn. He takes her home with him and as weeks and months and years pass by, they develop a close relationship and explore the world together. Anna has an astonishing ability to ask- and to answer- life's largest questions. She seems to understand with uncanny certainty, the purpose of being, the essence of feeling, the beauty of love. What makes her so special is the fact that she shares a special friendship with Mister God. Anna's ideas on God are astonishingly mature and insightful, yet so charming and cute.

I read this book when I was fifteen and it instantly, became my favourite. I have read it many times since. What appeals to me most in the book is how easily Anna understands the depth and meaning of life. Two of my favourite quotes from the book are, "My reason for preferring the night is that in the daylight others describe you, but in the darkness, you must describe yourself." And "there ain't no different churches in heaven 'cos everybody in heaven is inside themselves."

I found myself pondering over Anna's words long after I shut the book. Anna is adorable and so full of enthusiasm for life that you can almost hear her giggle outside the book. Her fresh perspective on life changed me as a person. For instance, I've always had an intense dislike for mathematics, and found it difficult and boring but Anna's ideas about numbers truly amaze me. In the book, Anna learns about experiments with language and codes, numbers and what they mean, music, science, shadows and light, love and friendship, mirrors and their magic, philosophy and why all this interested me was because it's presented in way that relates it to life, in general.

"A book that swells in the mind and haunts the thoughts" is how Los Angeles Times describes this book and I could not agree to it more. Her story moves us, touches our heart and shows us the world as we've never seen it before.

Although the book ends on a sad note, with Anna dying by an accident, she dies with a grin on her beautiful face, saying, "I bet Mister God lets me get into heaven for this." And I bet he did too.

This book is one that will make you laugh, cry, think and rethink and is a must-read for all age groups, according to me.