Anne of Green Gables is so well-loved by readers, and I am no exception. I fell in love with Anne when I was a child and would borrow the book from the library again and again. In the late 1980s (when I was in my early twenties), I re-discovered her and learned then that there were several sequels penned by L.M. Montgomery. From that late-80s era, I have all these and Anne in mass market paperback ( see https://www.librarything.com/work/3253/summary/30674271 ) .

Anne ("with an e") is so well-known that I feel no need for me to review and/or summarize this book. I just want to say that I re-read this just before a bucket-list trip to Prince Edward Island (PEI), and this trip is definitely worthwhile for Anne fans! In Cavendish, you can see the house of green gables that inspired the author, along with landmarks such as The Lake of Shining Waters and The Haunted Woods. You can also see L.M. Montgomery's grave (with her married name, Macdonald), and find her birthplace a few miles away. We visited at the end of the season (just before school started), so that timing was perfect. It was busy, but not overly crowded.

And, of course, in PEI, books by L.M. Montgomery are to be found -- such as this facsimile first edition copy that I purchased while there along with bookmarks. Of course!

I look forward to re-reading the rest of the series intermittenly starting this fall along with a couple other non-Anne books by Montgomery ( The Story Girl and The Blue Castle that I bought while on this trip.

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers" -- Anne of Green Gables ( )

Eleven-year-old Anne Shirley has never known a real home. Since her parents' deaths, she's bounced around to foster homes and orphanages. When she is sent by mistake to live with Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert at the snug white farmhouse called Green Gables, she wants to stay forever. But Anne is not the sturdy boy Matthew and Marilla were expecting.

She's a mischievous, talkative redheaded girl with a fierce temper, who tumbles into one scrape after another. Anne is not like anybody else, the Cuthberts agree; she is special, a girl with an enormous imagination. All she's ever wanted is to belong somewhere. And the longer she stays at Green Gables, the harder it is for anyone to imagine life without her.

Some of you might remember the "Maria" song from The Sound of Music. It is a lovely song describing a girl who is full of contradictions. Just see these particular lines from the lyrics:

"She is gentle! She is wild! She's a riddle! She's a child!
She's a headache! She's an angel! She's a girl!"

This is perfect not just for the orphan Maria but also for the lovely little orphan we meet in Anne of Green Gables.

Anne starts off as a typically atypical child. She's an orphan and has faced hardships like not many of her age have. And yet, she hasn't let go of her childhood innocence, exuberance and curiosity. Fate contrives to put her under the care of Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert (who are siblings, not spouses) in Green Gables. Marilla, who initially does not want a girl orphan for very practical reasons, slowly finds herself won over by the natural charm & idiosyncrasies of the talkative little redhead in her home.

The story finds Anne changing from a sloppy and dreamy girl to a responsible & caring young woman. Her precocious intelligence helps her to perform exceedingly well in school, but more than that, her vivid imagination helps her make the best of even those things that most of us wouldn't even look at twice such as trees and streams and roads!

The value of family, friends, teachers and even of love, care and a listening ear shines throughout the book. You actually see how Anne blossoms under the guidance and affection of Marilla and Matthew, in spite of their different parenting styles.

This is supposed to be a children's classic but I think it would be better for older children of Anne's age, who are able to comprehend that not everything Anne does is to be imitated. (Sorry, but that's the mom in me speaking! She does do some pretty silly things!) Of course, the book is also perfect for adult readers who are still childlike in their preferences! ( )

I think Anne's sense of romance has truly informed my own opinions (e.g., the daydream she describes to Diana in which Diana gets sick and Anne herself ends up dies of the illness after nursing Diana back to life). See my love of The Gargoyle. ( )

children's middlegrade fiction, standalone/1st book in series (12-16 y.o. orphan arrives on Prince Edward Island, Canada, changes everyone's lives for the better eventually finishing school with top marks and becoming a teacher), published in 1908.

re-reading this for a visit to PEI (Avonlea and Newbridge are fictional places but the Green Gables house is loosely based on the author's cousin's house in Cavendish--the "green" actually comes from trees, not paint, and busloads of tourists arrive every day to see it during the summer season). Anne is somewhat less charming to an adult reader-- she's got an incorrigible imagination and I'd have found her overly dramatic and pretentious if I'd actually known such a person in school, but apparently her classmates find her charismatic. She mellows a bit with age as she focuses mostly on school but conveniently doesn't become friends with Gilbert until after school is done. ( )