About Vera and Anfisa (Russian: Про Веру и Анфису, Pro Veru i Anfisu) is a 1985 children's book by Eduard Uspensky. It is a collection of Slice of Life short stories about a five-year-old girl Vera and her Non-Human Sidekick, a monkey called Anfisa; the stories are set in a small town on the Volga and usually take place either at Vera's home, in kindergarten or at school where her parents work.
The book contains examples of:
- The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: Vera’s parents are both teachers and her grandmother is a retired school headmistress, now giving extracurricular lessons in sewing, while Vera is a stubborn, wild, unruly girl. She gets a little better later, however.
- Composite Character: In-Universe. When the school staff stage a production of The Three Musketeers, the Queen and Constance are merged into a single character.
- Class Pet: Since Vera spends most of the week in kindergarten, Anfisa is the Team Pet for her whole kindergarten group.
- Delicious Distraction:
- After several hours of trying to get the (stage prop) diamond studs out of Anfisa’s mouth, the actor playing Richelieu realizes what to do: he brings a plate of nuts onstage for the final scene. This gets Anfisa to open her mouth after all.
- There is an art competition with the topic "Why I Love My School". One of the boys draws the pies from the school canteen.
- Everything's Better with Sparkles: Anfisa is fascinated with shiny things, so she loves the crystal vase she gets for her third place in the art competition.
- In-Universe Enforced Method Acting: When Vera’s dad and his friend (playing d’Artagnan and Rochefort respectively in the school production) rehearse their fights, they manage to break two windows in the sports hall and grind one of the school chairs to dust.
- Mischief-Making Monkey: Anfisa, in every story.
- Nearly Normal Animal: Anfisa falls into the "almost normal" category, sometimes showing Unexpectedly Human Perception.
- Pushed in Front of the Audience: Anfisa ends up onstage during The Three Musketeers because she hides the diamond studs in her mouth. The actors have no choice but to hurriedly think up a Canon Foreigner monkey.
- Shout-Out: To the author's own Cheburashka franchise. The kids at kindergarten sing Cheburashka's song (to be exact, they try to, since Anfisa's always interrupting).
- Show Within a Show: The New Year performance of The Three Musketeers.
- Stock Animal Diet: Subverted with Anfisa, who is fond enough of bananas but not as much as everyone expects. In one story, it nearly ruins a biology lesson (where the teacher expects Anfisa to quickly snatch a banana, while instead Vera does it), and in another, the narrator lampshades she prefers coconuts.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Anfisa is often treated as a human kid, being allowed to go to kindergarten with Vera and to participate in a children's art competition.
