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In Anastasia's 7th grade gym class, under the tutelage of the amazing kind and glamorous Wilhelmina Willoughby, she is the only girl who can't climb the rope to the gym ceiling. Try as she might, she just dangles. That doesn't sound like much to build a novel on, and it isn't. This one is short, even for an Anastasia book, and doesn't have much point beyond Anastasia's working towards the goal of climbing the rope.
She also would like to set her uncle (whose wife ~just~ died) up with some eligible woman she knows. Any one will do. Kind of a strange and uncaring subplot.
Nonetheless, it's an enjoyable enough quick little read, because Anastasia herself is still delightful, as is her family, though they take a smaller role in this volume. ( )

Cute but not overly engaging. I like the series, still. ( )

Ah, the one with the dastardly Sal Monella. ( )

Anastasia decidedly does not have the answers. Anastasia's Aunt Rose dies, which is dealt with rather insensitively and cavalierly by both the author and her characters, and Uncle George comes to stay with the Krupniks for a while. Anastasia wastes no time in trying to set him up with eligible females. Another subplot to the story is that most of the females Anastasia knows are man-less, something Anastasia sees as quite the travesty. For such a notably humanist author, this is a rather sexist worldview. The final thread of the story is that Anastasia is incapable of climbing a rope in gym class. This is prominent on the cover of every edition of this book, but largely a non-story. Anastasia can't climb a rope. She practices quite a lot, then learns to climb the rope. Obviously.
Really, as much as I like the Anastasia books, I was not pleased with this one at all. ( )