I devoured these books as a young girl--I loved them!

I have to say that Anne of Green Gables is by far the best book in this collection. The rest area closer to a 3 because they turn out to be rather formulaic, but Anne of Green Gables is THAT good that it brings the whole collection up to a solid 4 due solely to my nostalgia and love for young Anne. And who doesn't love a story with a happy ending?! All Anne books have RIDICULOUSLY happy endings, except the final book featuring Rilla which seems much more realistic and may have been the inspiration for the terrible 3rd movie of Anne: The Continuing Story. These books (and the first two Anne movies) are great friends when you are sick. Highly recommend for anyone spending a lot of time near a toilet or in their bed!

Journal entries while reading the series:

Have decided to read the entire Anne of Green Gable series in July, after beginning to watch ‘Anne With An E’ on Netflix. The series is a little different from the books - more detailed and gritty- but so far hasn’t deviated from the first book in the series. I hope it doesn’t! I loved the series with Megan Follows as Anne.

11th July

Finished the first book of eight - Anne of Green Gables. Reading it on the back of Thrush Green was a brilliant idea! It carries forward that wonderfully cosy comforting atmosphere ☺️ I love L.M.Montgomery’s writing style. Very similar to Ms. Read’s or rather the latter’s is like hers, since Anne was published in the first decade of the 20th century! Love the Avonlea setting as well!

14th July

Anne of Avonlea focuses on Anne’s life as the teacher of Avonlea school after she gives up her Avery scholarship to stay and care for Marilla who is losing her eyesight. Dora and Davy, twins, also enter the picture as Anne and Marilla take them in after their mother dies. Davy is mischievous and kind of gets on my nerves! I don’t like how he never seems to be punished for his wilfulness and naughtiness. Anne is now friends with Gilbert and they along with their friends have formed the Avonlea Village Improvement Society.

15th July

Finished Book 2 - Anne of Avonlea. All about the two years she spends at Green Gables, teaching at the Avonlea School and taking care of Marilla. Diana gets engaged, Marilla adopts Davy and Dora Keith, Mr. Lynde passes away and Mrs. Lynde moves in with Marilla, Ms. Lavendar and Mr. Irving get married, the Reverend Allan and his wife move to Charlottetown and Mr. Harrison’s wife appears! Anne and Gilbert have a ‘moment’ and prepare to leave for College.

16th July

Started Anne of the Island two days ago. It’s all about Anne’s college life at Redmond and Kingsport. So far she’s received and refused two proposals and won one scholarship

Love it!

Fez me chorar

2024 reread: the kids really grew on me this time! I never cared too much for the later books past Anne of Windy Poplars, and Rilla of Ingleside in particular was one I tended to skim. I never like it when authors force you to care about new characters in a series and write a whole book on them, but this time Rilla stole the show for me. This go around I was already starting to get drawn into Rainbow Valley and liking the kids much more than on previous reads, but I absolutely loved Rilla of Ingleside this time and related to her a lot more than previously. The first three Anne books are still my favorites in the series, but Rilla of Ingleside is close behind now.

current ranking:
1. anne of green gables
2. anne of avonlea
3. anne of the island
4. rilla of ingleside
5. anne’s house of dreams
6. rainbow valley
7. anne of ingleside
8. anne of windy poplars

A favorite classic, worth a re-read for nostalgia's sake.

This series completely changed and inspired me to become a "soulful and dreamy" girl and to allow having "intense inner life and hectic imagination." ♥️ I love characters who have deep-seated love for nature and the trees and come up with stories about it. And Anne in this story is that kind of a person which is why this became a childhood favorite, apart from its TV adaptation that kindled that interest.

This is my favorite series. I must have started reading them when I was 9 or 10. Lucy Maude Montgomery is an excellent author and her writing captures the mind of any child with an imagination. I wanted to go and play with Anne and Diana in Dryad's Bubble. The time period perfectly suited my romantic sensibilities, which have definitely lingered into my adulthood.
My aunt recently took me to see a musical version performed at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in Manhattan. While a bit cheesy (perhaps because its target audience was little girls at least 15 years younger than I), it took me back.

Okay, so all books in the series are not equal--as time passed, Lucy Maud seemed to become more and more fond of ellipses and romantic descriptions--but I cannot overstate the impact these books had on me as a kid. "Anne of Green Gables" was even the inspiration for an independent study project I did in high school about the "girl's story" genre and its emphasis on orphans, self-made women, the moralizing influence of chicks, and how the seemingly-progressive virtues of intelligence, creativity, and education still earned women the ultimate reward of marriage in the end. Even with all I know, I still love these books to death, read them almost annually (especially when I am sick or depressed), and dream of someday visiting PEI and standing on the shore with the wind whipping through my (long, flowing) hair.

One of my childhood favourites

I loved this series!