In these posts I hope to share a little about what I am reading with my two children. Not exactly a review but a look at a book we’ve read together and how it worked for us. For context, my daughters are currently 7- and 10-years old. They are both excellent independent readers but we choose to continue our family habit of reading a chapter together before bedtime.
Yes, we’ve read Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea together previously and yes, I do think this is a series you want to read in order. I’m not sure you’d care much about the characters in Anne of the Island without the previous introductions.
Pearl and Rose enjoyed Anne of Green Gables and were mostly interested in Anne of Avonlea when we read them together. Growing up, I was a big fan of L.M. Montgomery’s books and have several of my own childhood books, including this one. When I recently pulled out a box of my old books, I thought my girls might simply pick through them and read them on their own. Instead, they asked if we could read this one as our next chapter book. Pearl told me she liked the books but struggled with them more when reading on her own. I think this has to do primarily with the old fashioned languages and content.
In Anne of the Island, Anne Shirley leaves Avonlea to attend Redmond College and gain her Bachelor of Arts. I don’t think myself as a young reader or my own daughters clued into what a novelty a young woman studying at that level must have been at the time. There are some scenes at the beginning where some of the residents of Avonlea criticize Anne for not simply staying home and getting married but I’m delighted to report that my daughters get to live in a world where the two are not mutually exclusive and so saw nothing strange about Anne going to college and her best friend, Diana, staying home to get married and start a family.
Overall, I do think the plot lines of Anne of the Island were not as interesting to my girls. There is a lot of talk of marriage and courtship and while these things do feature in their own play, I don’t believe it’s much at the forefront of their own thoughts and future plans. They were pleased at the ending of the book but didn’t seem much stressed along the way. I think they liked most hearing about Anne sharing a home with her friends and adopting a cat. (I shared a house with several friends through most of my university years and I had to grin wondering if I’d been subconsciously attempting to recreate Patty’s Place. We did not, sadly, have a cozy aunt who came to keep house for us.)
I don’t know yet if we’ll continue with this series. I’ll follow my girls’ lead and, if they choose, we’ll go on to Anne of Windy Poplars. For now, we’ve switched back to Harry Potter and I may just leave Montgomery’s books about the house and let them read them on their own if they want to.
Karissa Reads Books 
Anne of the Island was a favourite of mine as a teenager. Anne leaving home to study and make new friends was something for me to aspire to. I loved the various romances, too.
Reading it now, I wonder if it inspired me as a kid more than I realized. I love how Anne pursues higher education and is so supported by her loved ones. I love the little home she and her friends make. And I like how sweet the romances are and how a character like Phil grows and develops.
Phil was delightful!
The owners of Patty’s Place were inspiring too, now I think about, even though I remember the girls laughing at their globetrotting and knitting. As I get older I realise Miss Maria and Miss Patty were braver than I gave them credit for as a teenager.
That’s very true! That’s a detail that I didn’t question as a kid but they were brave old ladies!
As a youngster in Scotland in the ’60s, it was still quite rare for anyone from the working class to go to university, much less women, so I found this one quite inspirational. Not sure I would now though. I became progressively more disappointed with Anne when she settled into being a housewife – it made the whole education thing seem not very worthwhile. Even back then I felt she could have done some kind of work outside the home, especially since, with Gilbert as a doctor, they could have hired help. I wondered why Gilbert would choose a woman with dreams, education and ambition, and then expect her to spend her life as an unpaid housekeeper. So she was my role model for the first few books, but not the later ones.
I definitely stopped and explained to my girls why it was so unusual for Anne to go to university! I don’t think they cared much but maybe they’ll remember it. I do tend to agree with you that Anne in her later years seems very far away from the original Anne Shirley. I wish we could have seen her continue to write or something when her children were older. At the same time, I think education is always worthwhile and especially for young women. I think getting a university degree and becoming a housewife can happen and that’s ok. It just seems contrary to how ambitious Anne is in the early books.
If I remember correctly, Gilbert and Anne had not yet declared their love for each other, so who exactly was she supposed to stick around and marry!
She actually gets quite a few marriage proposals in this book! At least 2 from other Avonlea young men. An important part of the book is that everyone (including Gilbert) thinks Anne will marry Gilbert Blythe but Anne doesn’t want to.
It’s been a few years since I read them, so I forgot there were other suitors.
They’re pretty forgettable, even the main one!