Overview

A brilliant and tender middle grade novel-in-verse from the award-winning author of You Are Not What We Expected, reimagining the childhood of Nova Scotia Giantess Anna Swan. Before she became the ""The Giantess from Nova Scotia"" and travelled the globe with notorious showman P. T. Barnum, Anna Swan was a young girl growing up near the rural town of Tatamagouche, desperately trying to fit into a world for which she was literally too big. In her debut middle grade novel-in-verse, award-winning author Sidura Ludwig imagines a pivotal period in Anna's childhood, as she struggled to find acceptance in a community that saw her as other. When twelve-year-old, seven-foot-tall Anna's family moves to her grandmother's farm in Central New Annan, she is forced to attend a new school, abandon the bedroom she once shared with her beloved sister, Maggie, and face bullies young and old. She worries she'll never stop growing, and dreams of dainty boots that fit and church pews that don't topple under her weight. Of a world that sees her as she sees herself: a gentle girl who loves to read books beneath the trees. When Anna discovers a solution that will help her stop growing and get her family out of debt, she agrees to exhibit herself as a curiosity in the big city of Halifax. But her giant heart will be tested as she tries to balance her devotion to her family with her desire for normalcy. A story of faith, family, and learning to love the body you're in, SWAN is a modern classic, an impeccably researched and brilliantly imagined story of a woman who has captivated the world for over two centuries. Features an author's note about the real Anna Swan chronicling Anna's later life, and the little that is known about why she grew so tall (almost 8 feet as an adult), as well as a brief history of the region where Anna grew up.

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9781774713211

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Sidura Ludwig is an internationally acclaimed Canadian author who has been a finalist for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award, and a runner-up in the Little Bird Short Story Contest. She recently won the 2021 Vine Award for best Jewish fiction for her debut short story collection, You Are Not What We Expected (House of Anansi Press, 2020). She also authored Holding My Breath (Key Porter Books, Canada; Shaye Areheart Books, U.S.; Tindal Street Fiction, U.K., 2007). Her debut picture book, Rising, illustrated by Sophia Vincent Guy, was published in 2024 by Candlewick. Sidura studied Creative Writing at York University in Toronto, and obtained a Master of Journalism from Carleton University. She is a 2021 graduate of the M.F.A. program in Writing for Children and Young Adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts. More information is available at: siduraludwig.com

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