That Judy! She's a wonder and comic relief! This is not altogether a happy story, there is death, grief, disappointment, suffering and occasionally stupid choices, but there is always Silver Bush, looming bright and comforting, stretching its arms to welcome you. Pat loves her place to pieces, and hates change (guilty

Originally published in 1933, Pat of Silver Bush was one of L.M. Montgomery's later titles, and although not the equal of the classic n  Anne of Green Gablesn, or the romantic n  The Blue Castlen, it nevertheless has a charm all its own. The story of Patricia Gardiner, whose attachment to her family home at Silver Bush runs deep, it is at heart an exploration of the nature of change - both good and bad.

"If I went to heaven I'd want to get back to Silver Bush," declares Pat at one point, and no statement better exemplifies the theme of the book. Devoted to her family, her home, and the domestic rituals of her childhood, Pat is resistant to any change. She mourns the loss of every tree on the property, secretly wonders why her mother would want another child (although she is soon reconciled to the existence of her new baby sister, Cuddles), and wishes passionately that she and her siblings could live together indefinitely at Silver Bush, rather than growing up, getting married, and moving apart.

This leitmotif serves to unify a book that is far more episodic in structure than many of Montgomery's other novels, and seems a reflection of the author's own conflicted feelings on the subject. It is, unfortunately, rather overdone during the first half of the book, with Pat almost a caricature, but the wonderful prose, and the humorous characterization of Judy Plum, are enough to carry the reader through to the second half, by which time Pat is somewhat matured.

Read for the first time as an adult, Pat of Silver Bush will probably never rank among my favorite Montgomery titles, and I cannot help but wonder whether it is just one of those books that needs to be read during youth, in order to achieve the full effect. However that may be, I did enjoy it, am glad to have filled in this hole in my Montgomery knowledge, and look forward to reading the sequel, n  Mistress Patn!

I was afraid to start this novel at first, even though I'm a great admirer of L.M. Montgomery's work. As a teen I had read all the Anne books, and I've reread a few in the series a few times since then. I have read Emily of New Moon, The Blue Castle, and Kilmeny of the Orchard. I did not enjoy Kilmeny at all, and whenever I read an L.M.M. novel that I've never read before I get a little scared that it's going to be like Kilmeny.

My first observation upon getting into the novel was the lack of depth given to many of the characters surrounding Pat. With the exception of Judy Plum, no one was an even remotely well-rounded character. Sid, whom Pat was so passionately attached to, so much so that she said he didn't need a wife, that she would take care of him forever and they would live at Silverbush forever, had little more than a few sentences given to him, and very little dialogue.

The same was true of Pat's parents, and her other siblings, and her best friend Bets. Jingle received a little bit more attention, but there were great gaps in his story.

It occurred to me that this story was written at a time when L.M.M.'s own sons were grown up, so she had the experience of raising children, and what it's like to be a mother, and to see firsthand how siblings interact with each other, but she still seems to write from her own childhood prespective of having been raised by neither parent, but by elderly grandparents, and having no siblings. It's as if she has no idea how parents/children/siblings relate to each other in the writing of Pat of Silverbush.

The ending was not satisfactory for me at all. I understand what L.M.M. was trying to say, that not all happy endings have to do with finding the love of your life. I also understand that L.M.M. herself became very attached and was very passionate about the homes she lived in in her lifetime. But for me there was something missing in the ending--not that she had to accept Jingle's love and give him hope for the future, but I guess just to not be so close-minded about her future prospects.

All in all, I enjoyed reading Pat of Silverbush, and I might try reading Mistress Pat at some point in the future, but I don't think it will be one of the L.M. Montgomery books that I will read multiple times.

I am not a fan of the writing-in-dialect style that Montgomery chose to use for Judy throughout; otherwise the storytelling was pretty good and the characters relatable. I wouldn't call it LMM's finest effort but on the whole it was not bad.

I just reread this, probably for the first time since being a teenager, or at least in my early 20s. I was curious what I'd think of it now...

I still get a cozy feeling from it. Part of that is because of the strong ties you get to a book when you read it in the impressionable mid teen years! And part of it was the beautiful descriptive writing. Yes, I still find it lovely. Though perhaps I'm more aware of its sadness than before.

I do now see a few shortcomings too, though. Pat and Judy Plum, and perhaps Jingle, are the only fleshed-out characters in the book. We are told that all of Pat's family is precious to her, but they seem a little shadowy as people. I realized that I went half the book without any clear idea of whether Pat's brother Joe was a small boy or a strapping teen. Even Bets, Pat's very best friend, has hardly any dialogue and seems no more than a beautiful wraith.
That said, Pat herself and the cook/maid/second mother Judy Plum are pretty vivid and enjoyable.

This book does beautifully capture the warmth of a happy home. And the nostalgia level is strong, for better or worse. This makes sense when you add in some context from L.M. Montgomery's own life.

The Pat books were written later in her life, when she was caring for a mentally ill husband and trying to do the best she could as a minister's wife, far from her beloved PEI. I think that she felt like a shadow of her former self, and these later books were an outlet for her terrible homesickness. The tragedy of L.M. Montgomery's life is that she didn't get the secure and stable home that most of her heroines end up with. Perhaps this is why she writes so poignantly about, what was for her, the unattainable.

It took me about a quarter of this book to really get into it, because at first I didn't particularly care for Judy Plum, Pat herself wasn't very interesting, and the rest of the family seemed to be glossed over. The main interesting part of the narrative was Judy Plum's stories, but I wasn't sure how much I cared for them. But as soon as Hilary Gordon, "Jingle," entered the book, I fell in love with it just like the rest of Montgomery's novels. He made Pat into a real and interesting person, and he himself was complex and intriguing.

Pat's love for her house, Silver Bush, seemed unrealistic to me when she was little, but as she grew, I could understand it and sympathize with it more and more. And now I love Silver Bush fiercely just like Pat did. I enjoyed how Montgomery told the story of a whole family, including both parents and plenty of siblings---so different from Anne, Emily, and Jane. I enjoyed how Pat was her own unique person, but somehow she didn't seem as strongly developed as Anne and Emily...but then again, I still have the sequel to read! I loved her physical description---like an autumn chrysanthemum with an imperfect, but distinctive beauty.

As always, Montgomery wrote with strong sensory detail. And as I read farther, all the characters, major and minor, became so interesting and alive. This was a beautiful book to read on my way to Prince Edward Island!

I almost feel bad giving this book such a low score. Almost. There's no doubt in my mind that I don't like it. I didn't like Pat, her family, or the story. But, at the same time, I know where L.M Montgomery is coming from.
L.M. Montgomery is my favorite author of all time, bar none. Every book that I've read by her (with the exception of this one and Anne of the Island, I never really got into the Anne series as a whole) is one my list of favorite books of all time. So I was disappointed when I got this book for Christmas and did not like it. I was so upset by how much I didn't like it.
After doing a little research on L.M. while reading The Blue Castle (great book), I found out that she extremely depressed in her later life. This was one of he last books and I can only assume that she was thinking like Pat and created this character out of that. Montgomery wanted nothing to change, and so much did. It made me realize where she was coming from when she wrote this book. I still didn't like it, but I understood it now. So, this is definitely not the worst book I've read, but I still can't give it a very high rating.

I forgot I even owned this! Well, what can I say--it certainly wasn't up to par with the Anne series, but it shined in its own right. Main character Pat, however, was insufferably sensitive and cheesy for the first half of the book. Yes, you love your home of Silver Bush. Yes, it is the best place in the whole wide world. Get ooover it! >:O And the character of "Judy" was practically like the poor man's Irish version of Susan/Rebecca Dew! I can't believe I'm saying that about an LM Montgomery book, but that's what I remember feeling at the time. It did improve in the later half, though, and I ended up enjoying it much more. Overall, not bad.

I should probably read the Emily series eventually, before it's too creepy for me to be checking them out at the library.

I've chosen this as my Children's Classic in the 2018 Back to the Classics Challenge, and I'm lucky enough to own a very old edition, although I've no idea where it originally came from. But the publication date is 1934, and since the story was first published in 1933, it must be one of the earliest versions possible. Maybe my mum had it when she was a girl. It's a delight to read something so old.

If you're a fan of Lucy Maud Montgomery, you'd have to be living under a rock not to know that several readers throughout the decades have called Pat Gardiner her worst heroine, but to me she's the best! While favourites like Anne and Emily are easy to admire but pretty unreachable, Pat is the sort of girl anyone can aspire to be. She doesn't have their same drive to excel, but her special talent is simply the ability to love things and people extra hard, including her family home Silver Bush. Other than that she's quite content to be ordinary, with just a few close friends, average intelligence and no burning ambition. To me, that makes her a breath of fresh air in a world of self-promotion.

No Montgomery heroine can escape their own brand of intensity though, and it's the nature of Pat's that make detractors call her silly. She loves things so hard that she can't bear change of any sort, from the chopping down of trees, to people leaving the family nest, to her dad shaving off his moustache. We can guess from the start that she'll be in for one letdown after another, since change is inevitable. The episodes are structured in such a way that one looming change after another threatens Pat's security, until they're either diverted or prove to be not so bad. Except for the few that are heartbreaking. In our era of mental health awareness, it strikes me that this is Pat's form of anxiety, which can manifest in many shapes. So twenty-first century readers who call her nasty names may be missing the point, or lacking in sympathy.

Pat is also the only LMM heroine to live in a reasonably stable traditional family, with both parents and several brothers and sisters. Some family members come across a bit shadowy at times, but that's fine. I'm not concerned with Winnie and Joe, the eldest sister and brother, not having a bigger presence on the pages. My older sister and brother floated around the periphery of my life too, which didn't mean I loved them any the less. I listened to their doings, but they never impacted my personal story, which is where Pat is at with Joe and Winnie. Montgomery has made it clear that the two eldest siblings are living eventful lives of their own, but this is Pat's story. Sid, the brother next in age to her, gets more of a look-in, and the father, Long Alec seems like a decent chap.

A story like this needs strong support characters though, and this one has two. First is Judy Plum, the loving old Irish housekeeper who's been with the family since Dad was a small boy. She's a master storyteller who seems to know something juicy about everyone within a hundred mile radius. Her method of childcare would never be endorsed in any modern text books, as it includes stories of ghosts, murders and wicked fairy folk. The kids all 'get' her though, and enjoy the thrills of her tales. Judy says, 'If ye can't be believing anything, what fun are ye going to get out of life?' I love her.

There's always someone with a sad or dysfunctional family background in LMM stories, and this one belongs to Pat's friend Jingle, aka Hilary Gordon, my favourite character. This boy is an absolute legend. In terms of supportive family members and opportunities for fun, he has nothing going for him. His father is dead and his neglectful mother has dumped him with her brother-in-law, who's equally indifferent. But in terms of appreciation, beautiful heart and sheer good nature, he has everything going for him. He's one of literature's best geeks, who proves that a boy can be gentle and dreamy without sacrificing manliness and strength of character. And if somebody asks which Montgomery episode first springs to spring to mind from any series, I might even choose the occasion when his mother pays a flying visit to sort out his future, and he's thoroughly disillusioned. It wouldn't be the same story at all without Hilary.

The person who falls short for me is 'Mother.' Montgomery never knew her own birth mother, which makes me wonder if that's partly why Mrs Gardiner doesn't spring to life on the pages. She's like a mousy person who creeps around the house without a strong identity. Even Judy calls her 'Mrs Long Alec' rather than 'Mary'. But I didn't like Mother after an episode where Pat was caught dancing around outside in the nude (yeah, truly). The family devises a punishment which a loving mother should never have gone along with. You'll see if you read it. From then on I saw her as not just a wimp but a cruel wimp, the worst sort. Even though we're supposed to think she was a wonderful mother, we are told told and not shown. I'm sorry, Lucy Maud Montgomery, but I hardly liked her any better than I liked Jingle's mother, who was a callous cow, but at least she was a cow with colour.

On the whole, it's great to read a family story full of such magic. It's not the obvious magic of Harry Potter stories, but the sort of hidden, subtle, everyday magic that could fill any of our lives, such as psychic cats, subtle atmosphere changes, and the effect of ravishing beauty and great emotion, not to mention legends of kelpies, leprechauns and other fairy folk.

But most of all, how liberating to come across a heroine full of such enthusiasm for what others consider mundane work, who proves that running a household isn't demeaning but just another valid life option for people who genuinely appreciate the lifestyle. I loved seeing the usual ending scenario turned on its head. In many stories, a girl gets an opportunity to spread her wings, leave the family nest and meet the wide world head-on. But it doesn't have to be that way if there's a better, humbler fit. Pat was nudged out of the nest to spread her wings grudgingly, but expands with joy when circumstances enable her to return home. And that makes me happy enough to give the story full marks.

Another sweet book by L.M. Montgomery. This was my first time reading it and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Some of it didn’t feel as “timeless” because they started talking about pajamas and bobbed hair and such. Lol. I’m so ready to jump into the sequel, Mistress Pat, but unfortunately (or fortunately??) a book I’ve had on hold on cloud Library for a long time just came available so I guess I better read it first! I do think Pat of Silverbush will probably join the ranks of my Montgomery rereads that are constantly going.

2nd reading - I love it. Simply love it. I also think the way Pat loved her home, caring for it, loving and caring for the people in it, in such physical tangible ways was inspiring.

The Pat books were written within about ten years of Montgomery's death, in a time when her writing had become—whether due to fashion or to her own life difficulties—rather episodic and a little more prone to mistakes, as well as somewhat given to a dreamlike overuse of ellipses. Considering the hardships she suffered through her own depression and her husband's, the wonder is that there aren't more oddities in her novels of that last decade (which novels include Anne of Windy Poplars and Anne of Ingleside).

Pat's story, though difficult to get into at first due to lack of overarching plot, gradually gains the reader's full attention. Montgomery could create impressively lifelike and memorable characters with very simple strokes of the pen, and while she limited that to a chosen handful in this story—antagonist May Binnie is as flat as the paper she's written on—among that chosen handful are some of the best Maud ever imagined.

The crown jewel of these is Judy Plum, live-in housekeeper, family caretaker, and superb storyteller. Entrenched in the Gardiner family, practically a close aunt or second mother to Pat and the other children, she and her anecdotes carry the story, sometimes doing more for it than any other force. An artist in the kitchen, in her storytelling, and in her rug-hooking, Judy rivals any Montgomery character for pure fascination.

Pat Gardiner doesn't lose the limelight, however. Entirely lacking in ambition, she also lacks Anne Shirley's propensity for "scrapes" and, more importantly, Emily Starr's cool pride. She shares their love for beauty, however, and equals or supersedes both Anne's love for gardens and trees and Emily's devotion to home. Innocent and loving, she's a delight to read about despite her one key blindness.

That blindness relates to Hilary Gordon, Pat's dearest friend, also known as Jingle. Gilbert is perhaps the most popular of Montgomery's heroes, and Barney may be the most charismatic, but Jingle is superlatively wonderful. Good to the core of him, artistic and sweet, suffering and affectionate, he's got everything going for him. He even has a great little dog, and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention McGinty as a character in his own right. Anyone who has ever had the honor of receiving a good dog's loyal adoration will recognize and love McGinty.

The scattered tales of Pat's childhood and teen years end with three major changes and a hope, and that was more than enough to make this reader take up the sequel.

No Anne or Emily, but damn do I love some L.M.