Beloved by millions around the world, “Anne of Green Gables” by L.M. Montgomery is one of those books that takes permanent residence in your heart.
I was first introduced to Anne through the Wonderworks production for Public Television starring Megan Follows. This was shortly after it first came out, when I was 10. There were so many similiarities between myself and Anne that I knew I had to read the book. I fell in love from page one and the love affair is still going strong.
Anne Shirley was raised in an orphanage and it seems that no one wants her. She gets passed from one foster home to another, given all the hard labor, especially the care of the children, and doesn’t have anything to really call her own, except for her imagination. She lives in a world of her own creation much of the time because the real world is unkind to her.
After yet another foster home falls through, she is sent back to the orphanage, and it’s unlikely that anyone will want to adopt her. At twelve years old, she’s too old to start all over again with a new family, until one day when she is told that a family on Prince Edward Island specifically requested a little girl about her age, and she was going to be adopted.
Anne could hardly believe her good fortune, and set out on her journey with high hopes and big dreams. When she is met at the station by quiet and good-natured Matthew Cuthbert, he doesn’t have the heart to tell her there’s been a big mistake. They had really asked for a boy.
The task of telling the truth falls on his sister, no-nonsense Marilla, who explains the situation to a distraught Anne. But after learning what would happen to her if they took her back, Marilla decides to give Anne a chance, which Anne presses for all it’s worth with one mishap after another. From dying her hair green to the alleged theft of Marilla’s amythest broach, right down to smashing her slate over Gilbert Blythe’s head, Anne just can’t seem to stay out of trouble. It doesn’t make any difference in the long run, however. She wins a place in the Cuthbert’s heart and she is asked to stay.
I can’t give Anne enough justice in one review, and plan to blog about each book in the series. If you only read one extra-curricular book this fall and you are not already well acquainted, now is the time to get to know Anne.
(This book was first published in 1908.)