Helpful Score: 3
Absoutely loved this book and her life before Green Gables as told by this author was exactly how I pictured it. She is still the same Anne (spelled with an e) we all know and love from the later novels/movies. Also very heart warming because even though she has a lot of people she can't count on growing up, there are several in the town that she learns to trust and depend on. Highly recommended, especially if you are a fan of the original books/movies.
Helpful Score: 2
Reviewed by Julie M. Prince for TeensReadToo.com
Anne Shirley, a beloved character recognized worldwide for the past one hundred years, returns in this fantastic prequel.
Centered around Anne's life prior to her arrival in Avonlea, this book answers the questions of how the little red-headed orphan came to be herself.
Anne - with an e - had quite an upbringing in those early years, orphaned at three months of age and bounced around from home to home as free, live-in labor. So, how did she get that exquisite vocabulary and her love of all things beautiful? We thought it would always be a mystery, and so it may have been if not for Budge Wilson.
An award-winning Canadian author of many books for children and young adults, Wilson seems to have been the perfect choice to tell this tale. She managed to create a realistic backdrop using the many resources available about Anne's life, chiefly the eight books in L.M. Montgomery's renowned series, along with input from literary experts and historians.
It's hard to give oneself over to an Anne book not penned by Montgomery herself, but since Wilson has a unique and strong voice in her own right, and since most fans are eager for anything Anne-related, it doesn't take long to fall in love all over again with the perky little girl who has a ferocious appetite for life. I laughed, I cried, and I closed this book with a sense of satisfaction I haven't felt in a long time.
I can't help but feel that Budge Wilson is a kindred spirit.
Anne Shirley, a beloved character recognized worldwide for the past one hundred years, returns in this fantastic prequel.
Centered around Anne's life prior to her arrival in Avonlea, this book answers the questions of how the little red-headed orphan came to be herself.
Anne - with an e - had quite an upbringing in those early years, orphaned at three months of age and bounced around from home to home as free, live-in labor. So, how did she get that exquisite vocabulary and her love of all things beautiful? We thought it would always be a mystery, and so it may have been if not for Budge Wilson.
An award-winning Canadian author of many books for children and young adults, Wilson seems to have been the perfect choice to tell this tale. She managed to create a realistic backdrop using the many resources available about Anne's life, chiefly the eight books in L.M. Montgomery's renowned series, along with input from literary experts and historians.
It's hard to give oneself over to an Anne book not penned by Montgomery herself, but since Wilson has a unique and strong voice in her own right, and since most fans are eager for anything Anne-related, it doesn't take long to fall in love all over again with the perky little girl who has a ferocious appetite for life. I laughed, I cried, and I closed this book with a sense of satisfaction I haven't felt in a long time.
I can't help but feel that Budge Wilson is a kindred spirit.
Helpful Score: 1
i really loved this book. as a HUGE fan of Anne of Green Gables, i was impressed that the author stuck close to the details given in the original books by LM Montgomery when writing this book so it seemed like it really could have been the first part of Anne's life.
Helpful Score: 1
Oh, what a delightful book! This prequel was very well done! I absolutely adored it! And though I haven't read _Anne of Green Gables_ since, well, probably grade school, it has made me want to read it again - immediately! And I really want to watch the PBS movies again, too! I am really looking forward to lending this book to my mother, since she first introduced the world of Avonlea to me. I am quite certain that she will love it just as much as I did! It is a tricky thing to add on to a piece of classic literature and this was simply wonderfully executed!
If you are a fan of Anne of Green Gables, then you will love this book. A wonderful beginning to an amazing series.... for young and old "Bosom friends".
I have to admit I couldn't finish this book. I liked it in the beginning, but after a while, I wished that he had shortened it. It seems like he just went on and on and it was all dark and gloomy. This book is marketed to children, but I can't see a child enjoying it. The author does have the spirit of Montgomery, and perhaps it would be a lot more enjoyable if it were half the size.
Remember Anne of Green Gables, the orphan girl sent to aging brother & sister who wanted a boy to help? This prequel tells her story in the years before, her experiences that formed the person she became. Orphaned at 3 months, taken in by one family & then another who needed her to help with their other children, and then sent to an orphanage when the second woman lost her husband, too. How did she develop such a love for words? Why did she develop imaginary friends? How did she cope with the institutional rules of the orphanage?
This author has researched all the "Anne" books as well as L.M. Montgomery's journals to tell the tale in a voice equivalent to the original author. If you remember Anne from her earlier stories, this is a must read.
This author has researched all the "Anne" books as well as L.M. Montgomery's journals to tell the tale in a voice equivalent to the original author. If you remember Anne from her earlier stories, this is a must read.
I grew up loving Anne, and then I found this book, wonderful! Not as good as LMM and her imagination and writing, but the feeling is there.
Prequel to Anne of Green Gables
Excellent book! Over 600 pages long in Large Print, but well worth your time.
There are a lot of hardships and sadness that Anne has to endure before she arrives at Prince Edward Island, but you will love the same resilient spirit that L.M. Montgomery wrote about in her beloved Anne of Green Gables series.
Excellent book! Over 600 pages long in Large Print, but well worth your time.
There are a lot of hardships and sadness that Anne has to endure before she arrives at Prince Edward Island, but you will love the same resilient spirit that L.M. Montgomery wrote about in her beloved Anne of Green Gables series.
