A bit slow, but very insightful on people's feelings. I love how Pat loves everything, including her great friend Jingle.

Pat loves her home of Silver Bush: the kittens that are forever infesting the barnyard, the secret field she discovered with her brother, the trees that have stories to tell, and--of course--her family.

She hates change. But change is forever coming. In the form of a baby sister, an aunt's wedding, a strange boy from next door who rescues Pat from being utterly lost at night. It's funny, how change can ultimately become part of life and part of home. All ultimately part of Silver Bush.

Even Pat is forever changing. But one thing--she vows--will never change. She will never leave or stop loving Silver Bush.

I've read a great many L.M. Montgomery books over the years. This one, however, I had yet to read when my mother and I had the pleasure this summer of trekking our way to Prince Edward Island for a week of "all things Anne." Naturally, one of our very first stops turned out to be at Silver Bush--the house where the author was married. A home that belonged to the author's relatives and which she loved to visit as a child. The Pat books, which had been on my to-read list for a number of years now, immediately leaped to the forefront, and I quite enjoyed this first episode. Pat is full of love, stubbornness, and passion.

Very much looking forward to seeing where all of those traits get her in Book 2.

A lovely, sweet book, and a high 4 stars if such a thing exists. The characters are wonderful and location idealic, and the time at Silver Bush is well spent.

However, I’m afraid I won’t remember reading this book in a few years. This book would be good for someone wanting more Avonlea-ish charm, but not so much for someone who didn’t already love Montgomery. Some of the side characters lack personality. Did Joe even have a personality? It would be easier to believe Pat’s distress at his leaving if the reader also felt distress, but he was nothing but a name.

I find it difficult to rate this book. Parts of it are achingly beautiful (it is L.M. Montgomery after all). Other parts are gossipy, and there are instances where characters are encouraged to act spitefully. Still, I think as long as you are able to distinguish the good from the bad, this book is enjoyable as a lovely yet bittersweet story of the joys and trials of growing up. Though, as a final note, I wouldn’t recommend this as a children’s story due to some poor character examples as well as the more serious themes toward the end.

I loved Pat of Silver Bush! Most of the "big" stories and series by L. M. Montgomery, I've grown up with, but Marigold, Jane, and Pat were somehow passed by in my girlhood reading lists. :) It's a delight to find that Maud's books are as enchanting to discover at nearly 20 as they were at 8.

This one was brimming with folklore in a way that gave it a slightly different feel from the others I've read. There was perhaps more of an old-time or backwoods feel--especially in the character of Judy Plum--than in the others, despite the fact that this one was set in the 1920s when that world was already growing old and disappearing.

Anyway. It was a joy to read. :)

Edit: I've just read over the other goodreaders' reviews, and I say! Poor Pat doesn't seem to be the most beloved of Maud's heroines by any stretch. Just for the record, I did not find her boring, and think she was only as selfish as most girls her age are, and that she had matured by the end of the book, though of course, at 18 one is still allowed to be quite a child. :) The love of Home really, really resonated with me.

I relate to Pat very much. <3 This story is a gem.

I've fallen in love with Montgomery's books all over again. Montgomery's fictional world is beautiful, her heroines are so endearing and Montgomery's places vibrates with love and life. No one can build a home as wonderful as Montgomery's home, made of words.

And "Pat of Silver Bush" is a novel about a home. About belonging to a place, loving a place and holding on to a place as the main source to one's identity. Pat does not only think of Silver Bush as her home, to her it is the entire world.
Pat isn't adventurous or ambitious. She is rather simple and desperately clings to her love of the familiar. She considers change evil and doesn't want anything to change. Not now, not ever. Weddings are frightening to her, because it takes her relatives away, and every time something wonderful happens it is tinged with a hint of melancholia, because Pat knows that even wonderful changes is a change nonetheless.

There's a huge difference between a home and a home, and that's what Montgomery emphasizes. Hillary builds houses, but he can't build a house for Pat, as she simply wants a home. And Silver Bush is that home – Silver Bush is in fact a description of the idealized home where we all want to live. A place where pies are constantly in the oven, where myths and legends are a part of the legacy and where a large family join together in a joyful talk over dinner. This is a novel of domestic bliss.

it’s been a year or two since i’ve taken the time to settle in with a new LMM book. and boy, am i glad i took the time this past week! once again, it was proved to me that LMM is my favorite author, and Pat of Silverbush, while perhaps a bit less gripping of a tale than dear Anne or even Emily, was delightfully cozy and brought me back to girlhood. this book felt like a warm hug, and i can’t wait to tuck in to the second installment!

While not my favorite book of Montgomery’s, this story is a reread for me and one that I was really excited to experience again!

Pat is an entirely different creature, in that she is wholly and completely devoted to not a person, but a place. And that place is Silver Bush.

Silver Bush has been in Pat’s family for many generations. And while not as old as Silver Bush, Judy Plum–the Gardiner family help–has been at Silver Bush for generations, all on her own.

My most favorite aspect of this story are the characters. Between Judy’s many wonderful tales, Pat’s vivid imagination and devotion to home, and the myriad of cats all residing at Silver Bush–I was enthralled with this story on my second reading.

My only “bone” with it is that because I loved Jingle so much, I felt like he needed to be a part of the story more.

I’ve already started Mistress Pat and am excited to read all over again how this story ends!

For some reason, I really resonated with the Pat of Silverbush books. They were realistic to me, and Pat has such a love of home and the familiar, and then there are so many unexpected twists and turns in the plot, like real life, that it was endearing.

Strangely enough, I actually enjoyed the part where she has a frightening fever and loses all of her hair. And then when it grows back in curly locks in a darker color, well, I was just fascinated by that detail.

There's just something so resonating in L.M. Montgomery's descriptions of home. I felt as if Pat's home was the place we all want to call home to: peach pies baking in the oven, outdoor Eden with trees shimmering in the wind, batches of newborn kittens tumbling about, and fresh linens blowing on the line.

In short, domestic bliss. And the ending of this book is pretty powerful to boot, considering what Pat overcomes regarding that dreamlike life.

In my opinion, the Pat books are right up there with the Anne series at the top of Montgomery's list of works.

4.5 The beginning of the book was a bit slow, but it improved with every page. Such a delightful book to read, so lifelike and so Montgomery. A book to hug.

3.5 stars

I love most of L.M. Montgomery's works, but my feelings about the two Pat Gardiner books have always been mixed. On the up side, Pat of Silver Bush often retains a wonderful humor and sweetness. There are two standout characters as well: Hillary "Jingle" Gordon and Judy Plum. As in Montgomery's other books, I love the family and community legends found throughout, such as the heirloom vase reputed to have made a face at a family member. The writing gives a sense of great affection for the people and places of Prince Edward Island.

On the other hand, Pat is not one of Montgomery's best heroines. She feels a bit like a watered-down Emily Starr, but her defining character trait is an excessive attachment to her home and to everything staying the same, leading her to always assume that the new or unfamiliar can't possibly hold a candle to the people and places she already loves. I don't hate Pat as a character, but her Silver Bush obsession can be aggravating much of the time. Another problem is that none of Pat's immediate family members are fully fleshed-out characters. Pat worries constantly when one of her brothers leaves home and when her mother is ill, but we know so little about these characters and their relationship with Pat that it's hard to feel invested in these subplots.

Ultimately, Pat of Silver Bush is just not up to the standard of Lucy Maud's best-loved stories. There are characters you can become attached to and there is warmth and humor, but a subpar protagonist and inconsistent character development make it a bit disappointing.