Most helpful customer reviews
|
|
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Courtesy of Teens Read Too, Mar 11 2008
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.
Reviewed by: Julie M. Prince
|
|
|
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A charming prequel to the beloved "Anne of Green Gables", Sep 19 2008
I remember being told about this great television series on PBS about this redheaded orphan girl. I checked it out the next time it was on and was immediately and totally captivated by Kevin Sullivan's adaptation of Lucy Maud Montgomery's "Anne of Green Gables." I watched it every time it was on and read the original novel. Within a year I had read all of the Anne books plus all of the other Montgomery books that were out in paperback and everything I could find on the shelves in local libraries. I tracked down books that were out of print and photocopied them and managed to pick up a 19th impression of "Anne of Green Gables" (from 1910) and a 1st edition of "Rainbow Valley."
When I got remarried we spent three days just driving to Prince Edward Island for our honeymoon, where we stayed at the hotel that shows up at the start of "Anne of Avonlea" and serves as the White Sand Hotel on "Road to Avonlea." We went to see "Anne of Green Gables: The Musical" in Charlottes town and saw every L.M. Montgomery site there was to see on PEI. On the way home we stopped at several of the places where they filmed the Sullivan adaptations, including the bridge where Anne finally told Gilbert she did not want sunbursts and marble halls, she just wanted him. We have a display case that has a couple of ceramic figures of Anne and Matthew, photographs of Green Gables, and assorted odds and ends including sandstone the peculiar shade of red you find on PEI. So when I found out that the Montgomery estate had authorized Budge Wilson to write a prequel to Montgomery's books, I was pretty excited to read "Before Green Gables."
Cranky old Mark Twain declared Anne Shirely to be "the dearest and most lovable child in fiction since the immortal Alice." But for my two cents Anne has Alice beat across the board. Alice is arguably the least interesting person in Wonderland or through the Looking Glass, while nobody on Prince Edward Island holds a candle to our beloved little red-headed orphan. If you ever thought that Anne grows up a bit too quickly in that first novel, "Before Green Gables" allows you the grand pleasure of reacquainting yourself with the young girl that Matthew Cuthbert discovered waiting for him instead of a boy at the Bright River station
Anne's history is laid out in chapter five of "Anne of Green Gables," so the framework of this new novel was essentially laid out by Montgomery herself a hundred years ago. Consequently, Wilson avoids having to come up with major developments in Anne's life, unlike those writers who have tried to come up with sequels to classic novels (e.g., those divergent paths taken by the sequels to "Gone with the Wind"). Wilson was ably assisted in her efforts by an army of knowledgeable Montgomery fans and scholars who were able to provide her with every detail of Anne's past to be gleaned from Montgomery's novels and short stories. Wilson focuses on fleshing out those key chapters in Anne's life. Montgomery's strength was always writing about children, and once Anne became a mother she faded into the background in the final novels. "Before Green Gables" keeps the spotlight on our beloved Anne-girl and is filled with familiar elements from Montgomery's writing, such as the people who thought they would never be married finding happiness, bratty kids getting their comeuppances, and Anne's peculiar ways thawing the hearts of sundry adults.
The only parts of Wilson's novel that are a bit discordant are when Anne is confronted with certain facts of life. I still remember failing to pick up the subtle clues in "Anne's House of Dreams." Anne was suddenly staying at home and then Marilla shows up. Next thing I know there is a baby. Wilson deals more explicitly with such things and while she goes farther than Montgomery ever would have dared, you have to admit that young Anne would be puzzled as to how a baby gets out of a mother's tummy and think that the bellybutton makes perfect sense as an available point of exit. More importantly, Wilson captures the voice of the young Anne Shirley, including her exquisitely elaborate vocabulary. The ending of the Wilson's story was a slight disappointment to me, but only because I had become firmly convinced that Anne's final line in this book would be her first line from Montgomery's novel. However, Wilson picks a different and totally reasonable point to end the prequel, so the dashed expectations were my own fault. Overall I found "Before Green Gables" to be charming and a worthwhile addition to the canon.
|
|
|
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must For Anne of Green Gables Lovers, May 4 2008
What a wonderful addition to the Anne of Green Gables series. I couldn't put it down but I didn't want it to end. Now I'm compelled to reread once again all the other books in the series. Thank you so much Budge Wilson.
|
|
|
|
by Elizabeth Epperly
by L.M. Montgomery
by L. M. Montgomery
by L.M. Montgomery
