Rainbow Valley

I first must tell you that Anne of Green Gables is my dearest love. I think it might actually be my favorite book. Anne is my favorite book character ever. I want to be her best friend so bad. And I think we probably would be. BOSOM FRIENDS, hello! And kindred spirits. Both.

The point is, this book is I think #7 in the Anne series. She's all grown up and has 6 kids. And this book is mainly about them and some of their friends. Anne is present, of course, but she's just not as central to the book as she is in all the other ones. But somehow you still want to be her so badly. This book made me excited to have kids and be the best mom of all time, like Anne is. (Jeez, this is embarrassing. Good thing I feel comfortable with you peeps.)

Rainbow Valley is what her kids name the spot behind their house. Don't you love Rainbow Valley as a name? I guess when you grow up in a house called Ingleside and your mom is responsible for names like White Way of Delight, Lake of Shining Waters, and Dryad's Bubble, coming up with Rainbow Valley is no big deal.

The book is just about all their little adventures, and also their friends, the minister's kids. And typical of all the Anne books, by the end, you just love every single person in it. I think that's L.M. Montgomery's greatest strength, creating lovable characters.

Anyway, it's great. If you haven't read all the other Anne books you probably won't care about it quite as much, but it's just adorable.

Also, if you haven't read all the other Anne books, you must do so immediately.

Ok, that's a lie. You need to read Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, and Anne of the Island immediately. The others are less urgent. And actually, those are the only ones I read as a youngin, so that's probably why I like them best. I tried getting into Anne of Windy Poplars and Anne's House of Dreams when I was like 11, but I think I thought they were boring or something because she's all grown up, and the romantic tension with Gilbert was over. But as an adult, I love them, because they're about her as a wife and stuff.

So yeah. Rainbow Valley. Way cute.

Before Green Gables

This was a fun book. It describes Anne's life before she reaches Green Gables. Because I am a sucker for all things L.M. Montgomery and I love spinoffs, I was very excited when I found this book. In some ways, it didn't disappoint - the details about Anne's early life give dimension to characters that were previously flat, almost villainized, such as Mrs. Hammond and Mrs. Thomas. You learn that Mrs. Thomas loved Anne's mom and that Mrs. Hammond has 8 children under the age of 4 (for some reason, I always thought there was more space between her "three sets of twins in succession"). You learn that Anne's mother was painfully shy and that Anne's father, unlike Anne, is very good at geometry.

However, this book was high on the cheese. There were many "cleverly insert perfectly correlating detail" moments. I think they were meant to make the book seem more believable as a true prequel to Anne of Green Gables but they just made it seem contrived.

Still, I enjoyed it and would recommend it, especially if you love L.M. Montgomery. 3 out of 5 stars. For more detailed rantings and ravings go to The Story Girl.