The ANNEthology
A Collection of Kindred Spirits Inspired by the Canadian Icon
Acorn Press, 2024
ISBN 978-1-77366-153-7
$24.95, 283 pp, ages 14+
acornpresscanada.com
Reading this anthology brings you on a delightful journey through individualized connections and various identities that bring Anne of Anne of Green Gables new life in modern settings, situations, and characterization. Anne’s voice is expertly woven throughout the various narratives from such authors and perspectives as:
Susie Moloney (MB) regularly writes horror fiction and imagines Anne entangled with dark magic and vampiric tendencies.
Hope Dalvay (PEI) writes with a focus on middle-grade experiences and places Anne in a modern-day junior high school where she navigates social media, paddleboards, and developing friendships.
Paul Coccia (ON) gives voice to LGBTQ+ characters and takes us through Anne’s internal and external journey to find her father.
Natasha Deen (AB) weaves mystery and action with Anne in a futuristic society where knowledge, reading, and books are the enemy of society.
Deidre Kessler (PEI) marries Anne’s search for identity with the influence of Emily Dickinson’s poetry through a diarizing of Anne’s first few days with the Swans.
Shari Green (BC) maps thoughts, feelings, and encounters from both Anne and Maud (Marilla)’s perspectives by penning a variety of poems touching on an orphan’s perspective of adoption and transitioning from late teens to early adulthood.
Matthew Dawkins (Jamaica/ON) touches on community, names, identity, and child kidnapping/trafficking, as well as the strength of connection to family and heritage.
Mere Joyce (NS) champions Anne as a rescuer of orphans in foster care who breaches an abandoned home, befriends its ghosts, and embraces the supernatural as protection from the unnatural.
Susan White (NB) modernizes Anne, renames Matthew and Marilla, and brings the magic of Christmas—and ripped jeans—to a heartwarming tale of the final foster home experience in Anne’s journey.
Judith Graves (AB) empowers Anne through cybernetic programming to protect herself and fellow train passengers from highwaymen during an unknown conflict, laying waste to most of the country except their destination—Avonlea.
Masterfully crafted and joined, this anthology pays tribute to the original genius of L.M. Montgomery’s true Canadian icon.
Classroom Connections: Each short story could be the focus of a literature circle following a class novel study of Anne of Green Gables. Rich with contrast and comparison of characterization, setting, plot, and conflict, these tales lend themselves to an in-depth examination of fiction, identity, and genre. Reading Comprehension Strategies: Making Predictions, Making Connections, Visualizing, Inferring, Transforming.
Review by Amanda Parker.
This review is featured in Canadian Teacher Magazine’s Spring 2025 issue.
