Emily of New Moon

About the book

After her father's death, Emily Starr must leave the familiar world they shared and enter the Murray household at New Moon. Her relatives offer security, but their expectations do not easily accommodate a child whose pride, sensitivity, and imagination are inseparable. Friendship with Ilse, Teddy, and Perry broadens her experience, while private writing gives her a means of preserving impressions she cannot always explain aloud. Montgomery treats creative ambition as something that requires practice and persistence as well as inspiration. Family stories, school conflicts, landscape, and moments of sudden perception all become material for Emily's developing voice. The novel's pleasures lie in watching a young writer learn to distinguish what others demand of her from what she needs to make and say.

• Artistic vocation
• Family and belonging
• Growing independence

Why read it

For a vivid account of childhood creativity that takes a young person's desire to write seriously.

Novel · English text