Not for me, unfortunately :)

Anna dei Tetti Verdi *****
Anna di Avonlea *****
Anna dell'Isola *****
Anna dei Pioppi Fruscianti - ****
La Casa dei Sogni - *****
Anna di Ingleside - ****
La valle dell'Arcobaleno - *****
Rilla di Ingleside - *****

Praticamente ogni bambina nata negli anni '80 e '90 in Italia avrà visto almeno una volta l'anime dedicato a Anna Shirley, l'orfanella di 11 anni arrivata per errore a casa di Matthew e Marilla Cuthbert, una coppia di anziani fratelli dell'isola canadese di Prince Edward che avevano deciso di adottare un ragazzino per aiutarli nei campi.
La serie televisiva segue piuttosto fedelmente la storia di Anna narrata in Anna dei Tetti Verdi, che vede la ragazzina maturare e diventare una giovane donna di sedici anni.
Ma dopo cosa succede?
Lo raccontano i successivi sette romanzi, scritti dall'autrice non nell'ordine cronologico con il quale dovrebbero essere letti e quindi soggetti ad alcune piccole incongruenze, storie che naturalmente perdono la magia del primo, indimenticabile volume ma ugualmente appassionanti
che portano il lettore a scoprire come Anna vivrà la sua giovinezza, prima come insegnante nella scuola di Avonlea (dove Anna può insegnare grazie alla gentile rinuncia di Gilbert, che in chiusura del primo libro le offre il suo posto per permetterle di stare vicino a Marilla, appena rimasta sola dopo la morte di Matthew) poi come studentessa del college di Redmond, dove Anna vive la sua prima storia d'amore e comprende quali sono i suoi sentimenti nei confronti di Gilbert, ed infine come preside della Scuola Superiore Summerside, e gli mostrano quale sarà la sua vita da moglie del dottore a Glen St. Mary, il luogo in cui vivrà la sua maturità e nel quale vivrà tanti momenti felici ma anche tanti altri drammi, come la morte della primogenita Joyce dopo neanche un giorno di vita e, soprattutto, quella di Walter, che perde la vita durante la Prima Guerra Mondiale.
Bisogna ammettere che Anna, soprattutto negli ultimi due libri, perde il suo ruolo di protagonista per cederlo prima ai suoi bambini e a quelli della canonica (La Valle dell'Arcobaleno) e poi a sua figlia Rilla, protagonista del romanzo che ha il suo nome nel titolo, ma resta pur sempre una figura importante all'interno di questi romanzi perché lei ne è il fulcro e "la roccia".
E' abbastanza comprensibile che il primo titolo sia il preferito perché è una perfetta lettura per i lettori più giovani, leggero e dominato da una protagonista loro coetanea ma di una certa profondità, mentre gli altri (tranne "La Valle dell'Arcobaleno" e buona parte di "Anna di Ingleside") sono libri dai contenuti più vicini al mondo degli adulti e quindi più adatti a un pubblico di adulti ma al tempo stesso meravigliosi quanto il primo per la loro semplicità e per l'irresistibile fascino di Anna, che potrà anche diventare grande ma dentro resta sempre fedele a quella bambina che Matthew Cuthbert trovò ad attenderlo sulla banchina di quella stazione ferroviaria.

Simply ones of the best books I've ever read. They taught me so much. They are about the ordinary life of not quite an ordinary girl. The girl who sees life as an adventure and wants her name to be pronounced with an "E". However, these books also show that every one of us is unique in his or her way. Love them and highly recommend reading. You will definitely not regret

I read all these as an adult. Do kids still read these and like them???

My favorite novel was The Chronicles of Avonlea.

11/10/19 - listened to this on a road trip. It was beautiful! What AMAZING dialogue!! After reading some of the author's biographies, I appreciated the book again a bit more. Looking forward to listening to the next book!

I actually enjoyed this series when I read it. I don't think I'd ever go back and read them again, but they were pretty entertaining the first time through. It is always fun to watch the progression of a character from childhood to adulthood, and Anne was no exception.

I love all of L.M. Mongomery's books that I have read so far. I started with the Anne series when I was in Jr. High School when my grandma gave the set to me as a gift.

I enjoy the imagination and variety of stories and adventure in each book. Her books remind me of my childhood.

I've read them all at least twice.

Anne of Ingleside was fun to read because you got to see Anne as a mother and most of all her children. It helped look forward to the coming years with my children. And gave me a new perspective to the ups and downs of childhood.

I appreciate the religious aspect of her stories as well. All of her main characters have strong morals and beliefs.

You can't go wrong with this classic series for girls. Anne Shirley is a character with plenty of pluck, but as the series progresses, she learns needed and appropriate lessons in becoming a woman. Some of the ideas within this series may be dated as of 2017, since this series is set from the 1870's through the late 1910's. Still, the stories are solid, and historical norms and context aside, it really is a series worth reading.

While I loved the early books, I really disliked books 5 and 6, which are about Anne as a full grown woman. I read the entire series as an 11-12 year old in the 90s and I just could not get over how disappointing her life ended up to me, given all the promise of her youth and how much she had overcome in her life. As the recent Ann Romney (faux-)controversy has rehashed, feminism doesn't necessarily mean you need to go out into the work force, and yes motherhood is a lovely thing, but I still hated that it seemed to me Anne ended up falling short of her promise. What is the point of going with her through the triumphs of the classroom and her eventual graduation from college as a woman in the early 1900s just to end up at the same finish line as every other woman on the island? Yes, realistically, the time in which it was written didn't really give women a lot of leeway in terms of profession, but with her incredible people skills and intelligence, why didn't she continue her work as a principal or teacher? Is being a doctor's wife (with the privilege of accompanying him to Europe for a conference) and 6 children the best a woman can hope for even in the imagined world of Green Gables?

As a young girl who was thinking of the future and the promise of it, I felt so disappointed and let down at the end of the story. Books are windows into other worlds where we are supposed to be challenged, stimulated and inspired. In my opinion, Montgomery created rare bird with all the promise of stratospheric flight then clipped its wings to keep it close to home.

Ultimate advice: Give your young daughter the first four books but save the last few until life has become less of an open ended promise or she will walk away disappointed.

All 8 volumes 2042 pp took a long time to read since I could not find much time to read. Nevertheless I could find myself where Anne was every time I returned to the book and I have to express my gratitude to the author for therapeutic effect of reading particularly this book in difficult times

Finished book #1, Anne of Green Gables.
Delightful.
Finished book numbers 2 and 3. Still delightful!

I estimate that I must have read this series at least fifteen or so times (and that is probably a rather conservative estimate at best), and actually do tend to read it at least once a year (sometimes even more than once if or rather when I need cheering and comfort). I love everything about the Anne of Green Gables series, and that actually tends to for the most part pertain to L.M. Montgomery's fiction in general. However, because her novels and short stories are such personal favourites, I have always found it more than a bit difficult to pen a review (or rather, what I personally would consider an adequate review). I also have the AOGG books listed on my shelves (singly), and will endeavour to write detailed reviews for all of them in the hopefully not too distant future (but that being said, so far, this has only happened with the first two novels, with Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea). However, I can and will say this about L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series, namely that it is one of my favourite all time fiction series, and that I highly recommend it to and for anyone (and equally to and for both children and adults).

I grew up reading Anne of Green Gables. I adore Anne. She is still a kindred spirit to this day.