Anne of Green Gables / Lucy Maude Montgomery

4 out of 5 stars

Everyone's favorite redhead, the spunky Anne Shirley, begins her adventures at Green Gables, a farm outside Avonlea, Prince Edward Island. When the freckled girl realizes that the elderly Cuthberts wanted to adopt a boy instead, she begins to try to win them and, consequently, the reader, over.

***Wanda’s Summer Carnival of Children’s Literature***
Finally, I met Anne of Green Gables. Honestly, it’s taken me so long that I’m surprised my Canadian citizenship hasn’t been revoked. (I never watched the TV show, either). I don’t know the source of my prejudice against the tale, but it was unwarranted. I quite enjoyed Anne with an E. It is definitely a tale of an earlier time in Canadian history.

Actually, in many ways it reminded me of stories that my parents told of the one-room school houses that they attended here in Alberta. The kids they got along with and the kids that were difficult. Knowing everybody else’s business in small communities. The teachers they liked and the teachers that they merely endured.

In that time period, people really did “acquire” orphans in this way. Lucky children were actually part of the family, as Anne was. Unlucky ones were more like indentured servants and worked half to death. Child welfare has changed considerably!

In a small community, you make the best friends that you are able to in the small pool of people that you have to choose from. If you are lucky, you find a few to be your secure circle as Anne does. I had my dependable 3-5 people in our small town school and I’m still in some form of communication with several of them. This book brought back many happy memories of good friends, good teachers, and the thrill and anxiety of leaving home for the big city.