Talk:Mister God, This Is Anna

Rewrite
This appears to have been written by a non-native English speaker, and does not read well. Needs a rewrite, but I haven't read the book, so I can't do it myself. Ijon 18:15, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

NPOV
This reads too much like a fan article or publisher's blurb. In particular I'd like to read a bit about the publication history – where and when was it first published, by whom, and how successful was the book on the market? Maikel 10:27, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

GDM

I have spent the past five years studying all of Fynn's books relating to Anna, particularly Anna's own writings found in "Anna's Book." Throughout my research, one questions keeps surfacing: "Who was Anna." Fynn himself pondered this question for 30 years before writing his books about Anna. On many occassions he seeed on the point of a breakthrough, wanting to state what he really believed concerning Anna, yet each time he drew back, perhaps out of fear of what others would think of him. Unfortunately Fynn's writing was jotted down as memories came and consequently were not chronological or sequjential, which gives rise to some confusion. Part of my objective was to bring together some of Anna's rough diamonds, polish them and then present them as devotionals for further thought, which I have done in a small book entitled, "Good Morning, Mister God - words of wisdom from a small child." In summary, my findings are that Fynn believed Anna to be a divine being, sent from God. From this perspective, Anns wise sayings and teachings take on new significance. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.241.75.198 (talk) 14:11, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

The history of this book
Another reader wrote that they believe that the original author was non English speaking. I wanted to clarify that the original writer was Fynn, Anna's friend and caretaker. He spoke English but lived in a very poor part of London. Because of that, he spoke and wrote with a different dialect, perhaps cockney. I am from the USA and not familar with British dialects so if anyone reading this is familiar with the probable dialect of someone from the docks area, lower East End of London in the mid 30's, please correct me, or clarify this.

Also, from my research, Fynn was devastated by her accidental death before she reached age 8 and didn't write about her for some number of years, perhaps 20 or more. Alot is forgotten in that time. He also jumped around in his memory of her. That made it hard to follow. However, Anna was so precocious at such a young age and it seems that she did not go to a regular school. It was just not obvious to him or I what age she was at any time. I would probably use known developmental skills and their milestones as markers for her age but she excelled in intelligence and lacked formal education so those milestones are probably inaccurate for her

I DID read this book;just finished it last night. I wondered if the poor spellings are from the way Anna wanted him to record her thoughts as she often asked him to do, or because HE was a poor speller and didn't bother to look up words when he wrote the books. I believe that he wrote the books exactly as he had recorded the her thoughts at the time so that his editing did cause a "mistranslation" or a loss in content due to the translation. The exact words as she said them, the way he or she wrote them shows her innocence that only comes through in her spelling and syntax. Because of her precociousness, if he edited, that nuance of her innocence is gone.

I do some writing too. Editing it for spelling would be the same as editing Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn so that Tom Sawyer sounded more educated. Sometimes the incorrect spellings must be used because the characters lack of education is part of "their charm". That is the best way to explain it.

I liked this book/story because of her absolute faith in God as a merciful friendly "being" and she never doubted anything he did, never questioned it. However, I did not see this book as one that one change a person tremendously after they were lacking in faith for some reason or because of a certain event. Now that I've read this and "The Shack" I would choose to give "The Shack" to anyone older than 10 who ever doubted God's reasons or lost faith due to any misfortune in their lives. This book is really cute, but I do not believe that it will give anyone faith or restore their faith. I do believe that it shows that a child is not a small version of an adult but sometimes much smarter and that they are precious. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Scrapgal12 (talk • contribs) 07:12, 9 July 2009 (UTC)

Fynn's age
There seems to be some unclarity as to whether Fynn was 16 or 19 when he met Anna. The article has ping ponged between both for a while. Could someone shed light as to why there might be a confusion? Something in the text, I suspect. Ta. Span (talk) 15:13, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

First and other early editions of this book had Fynn's age as 16, whilst later editions have it as 19. Following the timeline of events in the story Fynn could not have been 19 if he was to know Anna for 3 years before World War 2. N. C. Fortune (talk)

Sorry thats the wrong way round. I should say early editions have his age wrong as 19, whilst the later ones have his correct age at the time he met Anna which is 16. N. C. Fortune (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 16:58, 17 March 2012 (UTC).

Fynn = Sydney Hopkins
Is it a known fact, that Fynn is indeed Sydney Hopkins? AFAIK this is not certain. Soulman (talk) 00:33, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

Yes it is now quite widely known that Syd was indeed Fynn. I would refer you to the Finchden Manor website for proof (just Google it). N. C. Fortune (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 16:35, 5 May 2014 (UTC)