A red-headed Canadian girl

I finally did it. I finally got around to reading a book that certain friends have been encouraging me to read since … oh, high school if not before. Which was a long time ago. But I'm rambling now.

Anne of Green Gables is an L M Montgomery classic. Anne is an orphan with bright red hair and freckles. The story begins with her adoption by an older pair, a brother and sister living in a small homestead in a provincial village (for want of a better word) on Prince Edward Island. Of course, they were expecting to be adopting a boy, to help out on the farm…

Of course you, dear reader, have probably read the book before, so I won't waste any more time outlining the plot. (Besides, you can go read it yourself anyway.)

I actually think it am better off for having read Anne now, later in life. I would not have understood it to nearly the same depth when I was a teenager (being a boy, and a socially inept one at that). And I certainly would not have coped with the sheer level of detail in the descriptive passages—which Laetitia insisted I read and appreciate when I suggested I might just skim lightly over the first couple. Having now had some exposure to teenage girls as a mature observer, in my role as a high school teacher, I can better understand the stories and characters than I would have back then.

So: An enjoyable book. Definitely a must-read. I cried at the end.