Anne of Green Gables

About the book

Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert expect a boy to help at Green Gables and instead meet Anne Shirley, a girl whose conversation and imagination immediately disrupt their plans. Anne wants more than a roof: she longs for belonging, friendship, beauty, and opportunities to prove herself. Life in Avonlea gives those desires comic and painful forms through school rivalries, household mistakes, new attachments, and fiercely felt embarrassments. Montgomery lets Anne's extravagant language coexist with close attention to landscapes and practical kindness. The adults around her also have to learn, adjusting settled habits to the demands of caring for a particular child. The novel's episodes build a portrait of growing trust, in which making a home depends on being known as well as being sheltered.

• Belonging
• Imagination
• Growing up

Why read it

For a lively voice and the gradual, reciprocal work of becoming a family.

English text