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Anne of Green Gables
When elderly siblings Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert decide to adopt a boy from an orphanage in Nova Scotia to help Matthew on the farm, a mistake results in a girl being sent to them instead. Anne Shirley is redheaded, imaginative and extremely talkative, and she falls in love with Green Gables – Matthew and Marilla's farmhouse in Avonlea, Prince Edward Island – straight away. They decide to keep her, getting a hired boy to help Matthew instead, and she soon settles in (though not without bumps along the way, due to her temper and stubborness). The books are considered classics, and are often studied in schools. There are also numerous films, TV series and other adaptations, the most famous of which was released in 1985 and stars Megan Follows as Anne Shirley, Colleen Dewhurst as Marilla Cuthbert, Richard Farnsworth as Matthew Cuthbert, Jonathan Crombie as Gilbert Blythe and Schuyler Grant as Diana Barry. An ongoing web series, called Green Gables Fables, is also being released on YouTube.

Books[]

General Information

Name: Anne of Green Gables series
Author: L. M. Montgomery
Titles: Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island, Anne of Windy Poplars, Anne's House of Dreams, Anne of Ingleside, Rainbow Valley and Rilla of Ingleside
Release Date(s): 1908-1939
Genre(s): Slice of life, bildungsroman
Description: When elderly siblings Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert decide to adopt a boy from an orphanage in Nova Scotia to help Matthew on the farm, a mistake results in a girl being sent to them instead. Anne Shirley is redheaded, imaginative and extremely talkative, and she falls in love with Green Gables – Matthew and Marilla's farmhouse in Avonlea, Prince Edward Island – straight away. They decide to keep her, getting a hired boy to help Matthew instead, and she soon settles in (though not without bumps along the way, due to her temper and stubborness).

Books one to four follow Anne's adventures as she starts her new life in Avonlea, finds her bosom friend, teaches school, goes to college, becomes engaged and becomes the principal of a high school. Book five covers the first few years of her married life, and books six, seven and eight ease the focus away from her and towards her children and their friends and the people in the village they live in.

Main Characters: Anne Shirley, Matthew Cuthbert, Marilla Cuthbert, Diana Barry, Gilbert Blythe
Related Book Series: Emily of New Moon trilogy, Little House on the Prairie, What Katy Did
General Notes: The series takes place in the late 19th century to early 20th century. As such, some of the concepts and language may be unfamiliar to modern readers.

Content Ratings

Rating: Junior fiction – suitable reading from about age nine, though recommended for eleven-year-olds and above. Books 5, 6 and 8 are probably the least child-friendly in the series, dealing with married life, the death of a newborn child, marital problems and war. Book 8 is often classified as teenage fiction.
Violence: Never shown on-screen (page?). Mentioned as a part of one character's unhappy childhood in the first book, but glossed over and easy to miss. A character who had an abusive childhood describes it offhandedly in the seventh book. The eighth book, which takes place during World War I, has some vivid descriptions of war.
Language: None. Barely-swearing (such as "damned" or "dastardly") is occasionally censored.
Sexual Themes and Nudity: None.
Drugs and Alcohol: Alcohol abuse is mentioned infrequently, but it is glossed over. An underage character accidentally gets drunk in the first book (on currant wine), though there is nothing inappropriate or underhand about the situation.
Crude Humor or Comic Mischief: None. The humour is derived from social satire, for the most part.
Content Notes: Contains four notable character deaths (in books 1, 3, 5 and 8), though a number of characters die throughout the series. It is good to remember that what children are able to read is not always the best for them. There are many abridged versions of the first book available, which simplify the work and make it more appropriate for a younger reading level.


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