Book Review: Anne of Green Gables

[Shiloh Adlar]

Title of the book: Anne of Green Gables
Author: L.M. Montgomery
Series: Anne of Green Gables
Genres: Young Adult, Classics

Short summary of the story: Expecting a boy, the Cuthbert's get a huge surprise when Michael comes home with a young red headed girl named Anne. The story takes the reader through Anne's lovely imaginings while she is learning about life, friendship, and some common sense. Marilla and Michael learn a lot on their own while raising the young girl and Marilla finds herself falling for the girl as the weeks and soon years pass. Anne teaches us about imagination and how powerful it can be and about determination when it comes to her rival, Gilbert Blythe. There are also difficult points in the story where tough decisions have to be made.

Good points / bad points: There weren't really any bad points to this story. I read this when I was very young and couldn't remember it very well, so I picked it up again and I had forgotten so much. It is such a lovely read, and I relate to Anne very much in the imagination area. We were both very imaginative children. But Anne also learns a lot of lessons, and I think that is important overall in the story about how too much of one thing is not always good and not enough of something else can cause regret.

[River Fenwick]

Title of the book: Anne of Green Gables
Author: L.M. Montgomery
Series: Anne of Green Gables
Genres: Young Adult, Classics

Short summary of the story: Expecting a boy, the Cuthbert's get a huge surprise when Michael comes home with a young red headed girl named Anne. The story takes the reader through Anne's lovely imaginings while she is learning about life, friendship, and some common sense. Marilla and Michael learn a lot on their own while raising the young girl and Marilla finds herself falling for the girl as the weeks and soon years pass. Anne teaches us about imagination and how powerful it can be and about determination when it comes to her rival, Gilbert Blythe. There are also difficult points in the story where tough decisions have to be made.

My Opinion:
Like Shiloh, this was a book I read when I was younger and decided to read again. I’m not usually one to enjoy literature from the past, but this is one of the more tolerable ones for me. I greatly enjoy how Anne often perceives things, despite the lessons she has to learn throughout the novel. She was a very imaginative and driven child, which makes you want to root for her even more in her successes and setbacks. The only downside I can currently come up with is the generic stereotyping and misogyny the adults showed toward Anne, since I personally feel that authors can create an antagonist without resorting to them, but it does work in the novel and its time period, and I definitely couldn’t do it better myself, so I’ll let it slide.