Anne of Green Gables (novel)

Come closer and open my cover. Can you smell it? It’s the scent of salty sea air mixed with sweet apple blossoms in the spring. Feel the crunch of the red clay roads under your shoes as you walk through my world. This is a place for daydreamers, a place where a skinny, red-headed girl with a wild imagination and very big feelings looks at the world and sees not just what is, but what could be. She finds “kindred spirits” in friends and “scope for the imagination” in everything from a babbling brook to a row of tall trees. I was created to tell the story of a lonely orphan who, through a happy mistake, finally finds a family and a home to call her own. I am the story of Anne of Green Gables.

My creator was a thoughtful and brilliant woman named Lucy Maud Montgomery, though her friends and family just called her Maud. She lived on a beautiful island in Canada called Prince Edward Island, a place so lovely it filled her heart with stories. In the spring of 1905, while looking through some old papers, she found a little notebook. Years before, she had jotted down a simple idea: an elderly couple sends for an orphan boy to help on their farm, but by mistake, they are sent a girl. That tiny seed of an idea began to grow. Day after day, Maud sat with her pen and filled my pages with the adventures of Anne Shirley. She wrote about Anne’s funny mistakes, her deep love for nature, and her wonderful, rambling speeches that could charm almost anyone. Maud poured all the beauty of her island home into me, from the Lake of Shining Waters to the White Way of Delight. At first, not everyone saw my magic. Maud sent me to several publishers, but they all sent me back. Can you imagine? They said no one would want to read about this little orphan girl. But Maud believed in Anne, so she tucked me away in a hatbox and didn't give up on me.

A few years later, she tried again, and this time, a publisher in Boston said yes. On a wonderful day in June of 1908, I was finally printed and bound in a handsome green cover, ready to meet the world. People began to open my pages and were instantly whisked away to the fictional town of Avonlea on Prince Edward Island. They met quiet, gentle Matthew Cuthbert, who was charmed by Anne from the very first moment. They met his sister, the stern but loving Marilla, who didn't know what to do with such a talkative, imaginative child but grew to love her fiercely. And, of course, they met Anne's “bosom friend,” Diana Barry, and shared in their solemn vow of friendship. My story of finding a family and a place to truly belong touched the hearts of readers everywhere. Soon, I was traveling across oceans, learning to speak new languages so that children in countries like Japan, Poland, and Brazil could read my story and visit Green Gables in their minds. They all saw a little bit of themselves in Anne’s hopes and dreams.

For more than a hundred years now, I have sat on bookshelves in cozy bedrooms, grand libraries, and busy classrooms. My story has jumped from my pages onto movie screens and theater stages. People from all over the world travel to the real Prince Edward Island to visit the lovely green-roofed house that looks just like the one I describe, hoping to feel some of Anne’s magic for themselves. I am here to remind everyone that your imagination is a powerful and beautiful gift. I show that true friendship is one of life’s greatest treasures and that being a little bit different is something wonderful. I am more than just paper and ink. I am a promise that no matter how lonely you might feel, there is beauty to be found all around you and a place in the world where you belong.