ledesmavale

** spoiler alert ** This series did not disappoint! I spent many, many hours of my childhood watching the Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea movies (the ones starring Megan Follows) and LOVED them. LOVED. I was very excited when I took the plunge and bought the series of books, ready to fulfill my childhood dream of actually reading the books. The first book was incredibly close to the movie, so it was just a delight. When Anne breaks her slate on Gilbert's head for calling her "Carrots", I felt insanely happy. Oh, Anne. She gets into the most ridiculous scrapes. And all of her friends and family are fantastic. Marilla, so rigid and strict, who falls in love with Anne, and Matthew, sweet Matthew. Then, the movie Anne of Avonlea veers into the Land of Movie Making, and mashes together books 2 through 4, but really, the movie does it so well that I forgive it. They books are all charming, but the best part of all three was when Anne and Gilbert finally get their acts together. It made me giggle and want to cuddle. After that, Gilbert becomes a bit of a flat character...It's a bit disappointing, really, because I thought I would love Gilbert :( You do realize some time during these three books that the world does not revolve around Anne, which was also disappointing. Surprising might be a better word for it. Also, she grows up so much, not getting in quite the same funny scrapes. She certainly does a lot of matchmaking. That continues until the focus completely switches to Anne's children in the sixth book, Anne of Ingleside. I started to love Gilbert again, for the little mentions he gets. We do get a little bit of foreshadowing in this book, about Anne's son Walter, which was perfectly timed and made you want to keep going... Rainbow Valley, strangely enough, is more about the neighbor kids than anybody else. And there's more matchmaking! But it's actually a pretty sweet book once you get used to the fact that it's not centered around the Blythes. There is some more foreshadowing regarding Walter... Finally, Rilla of Ingleside is the perfect ending to the series. Sometimes in the middle of the others (Anne of Windy Poplars mostly), I felt a little less enthused about the whole series. Rilla, Anne's youngest daughter, is about the same age that Anne was when the series started. The book is set during WWI, starting right before the war breaks out, a more innocent time on Prince Edward Island for Rilla. The neighbor boys and her brothers leave, Rilla takes care of a parent-less war baby, she finds love...Susan, Dog Monday, Ken Ford, Walter--I giggled, I cried, and I loved the book and the series. You realize that you have to get to know Anne, Gilbert, their kids, their neighbors to enjoy Rilla of Ingleside to the fullest. Should you make time to read all of the books? Rilla and I say, "Yeth!"

2022-10-29 03:08