by Budge Wilson
Penguin Group (Canada), 2009
ISBN 978-0-14-305536-5
$12.99, 464 pp, ages 10+
www.penguin.ca
Before Green Gables is a welcome bonus for Anne fans who thought they had read the last in the Anne Shirley series. In this prequel to Anne of Green Gables, author Budge Wilson takes us back to Anne’s birth, and we begin to understand why Anne is the feisty, red-headed original that she is. We meet her parents and mourn when they die too young, leaving infant Anne in the care of a family more interested in the furniture and clothing that will come with the adoption than they are in the child. And so Anne is thrust from the loving arms of her doting parents into the rough and tumble household of their housekeeper. Wilson does a remarkable job of capturing the tone of L.M. Montgomery’s narratives, and creates a completely believable Anne who will step seamlessly into Matthew and Marilla’s life. If you loved Anne of Green Gables, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with Before Green Gables.
This review is from Canadian Teacher Magazine’s May 2009 issue.