Before Green Gables

Before Green Gables

Budge Wilson

Genre: Young Adult Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads): A must-read for generations of book lovers. This remarkable, and heart-warming prequel to the classic Anne of Green Gables was specially authorized by L.M. Montgomery's heirs to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of the original novel.

Before Green Gables is the story of Anne Shirley's life before her arrival at Green Gables-a heartwarming tale of a precocious child whose lively imagination and relentless spirit help her to overcome difficult circumstances and of a young girl's ability to love, learn, and above all, dream.

Published in 1908, L. M. Montgomery's coming-of-age classic Anne of Green Gables has enchanted generations of readers, both children and adults. The story of the spunky red-haired orphan from Prince Edward Island is known to millions, and copies of the eight titles in the series have never gone out of print.

But when readers first meet Anne, she is eleven, and has just been sent from an orphanage to meet her new family. No one ever learned the events of Anne's life before she arrived at Green Gables.

Until now.

For the millions of readers who devoured the Green Gables series, Before Green Gables is an irresistible treat; the account of how one of literature's most beloved heroines became the girl who captivated the world.

Review: I enjoyed this story of Anne's young childhood, but it was missing some of the magic inherent in L.M. Montgomery's writing.  The author clearly did her research into Anne's early life as described in the Anne of Green Gables series, and she even worked in the history of some of Anne's little quirks, like her wonderful vocabulary.  I felt that the 3 or 4 year old Anne was completely unrealistic, though.  Could a precocious child of that age handle that much responsibility, even a hundred years ago, and would she have the grasp of language to talk in such a manner as Anne did in this book?  I sincerely doubt it.  The emphasis on Anne falling in love with Prince Edward Island also seemed like a bit of a stretch, but that's a minor complaint.  Overall, when I finished this book, I was so caught up in Anne's life that I dug out my Anne books from a box in the basement and read the first four in the series over the weekend.  So despite my complaints, the author must have done a nice job bringing Anne to life.

Rating: 3 stars