Before Green Gables
by Budge Wilson
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Reviewed by Julie M. Prince for TeensReadToo.com
Anne Shirley, a beloved character recognized worldwide for the past one hundred years, returns in this fantastic prequel.
Centered around Anne's life prior to her arrival in Avonlea, this book answers the questions of how the little red-headed orphan came to be herself.
Anne - with an e - had quite an upbringing in those early years, orphaned at three months of age and bounced around from home to home as free, live-in labor. So, how did...more
Anne Shirley, a beloved character recognized worldwide for the past one hundred years, returns in this fantastic prequel.
Centered around Anne's life prior to her arrival in Avonlea, this book answers the questions of how the little red-headed orphan came to be herself.
Anne - with an e - had quite an upbringing in those early years, orphaned at three months of age and bounced around from home to home as free, live-in labor. So, how did...more
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Some prequels shouldn't be written at all they may be ok run of the mill novels, but they don't live up to the originals. Some require you to suspend what you know about the original books so you don't scream "NO!! Ashley's eyes weren't blue!!" as you read...
Before Green Gables is NOT one of those. This book takes very few liberties with what we already know about Anne-with-an-e, and provides a generous history for the beleoved heroine. I was entranced by the description of Anne's...more
Before Green Gables is NOT one of those. This book takes very few liberties with what we already know about Anne-with-an-e, and provides a generous history for the beleoved heroine. I was entranced by the description of Anne's...more
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Disclaimer: I didn't read this book; I only skimmed. But a few pages here and there were enough to confirm my suspicion that this was something less than a labor-of-love.
If you've read and loved the "Anne" books, as I have, than you'll already know Anne's backstory. She describes her birth and parents' deaths in Anne of the Island, and tells Marilla about the rest of her past in Anne of Green Gables. It i...more
If you've read and loved the "Anne" books, as I have, than you'll already know Anne's backstory. She describes her birth and parents' deaths in Anne of the Island, and tells Marilla about the rest of her past in Anne of Green Gables. It i...more
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Read in April, 2008
As a huge fan of Anne as a girl, the adult in me did not want to spoil any of my memories by picking up this prequel commissioned for the 100th anniversary of Anne of Green Gables. As a librarian, I felt it was my duty to suck it up and read. I was not disappointed.
Before Green Gables seems to stay close to Anne's own description of her life before arriving at Green Gables (but it's been a few years since I last read it, so purists may have gripes I didn't notice). It opens with the roman...more
Before Green Gables seems to stay close to Anne's own description of her life before arriving at Green Gables (but it's been a few years since I last read it, so purists may have gripes I didn't notice). It opens with the roman...more
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Read in April, 2008
Nothing good happens to Anne before Green Gables! Although the book is well written it is extremely depressing. The author describes the loving home and happy parents of Anne who both die! So sad! Then she is taken in by a woman who treats her bad and ends up having 4 or 5 little boys after she takes Anne in. Anne helps her take care of all the boys. The one person, an older daugher Eliza, treats her like a daughter but moves out of the house to get married. Anne is heartbroken! Then you thi...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
Anne of Green Gables fans
My wife and I spent our honeymoon on Prince Edward Island and, there, I was introduced to Anne Shirley and Lucy Maud Montgomery, and her Anne books. I enjoyed them very much, so when I heard that a prequel was being published to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of Anne of Green Gables, I picked it up as soon as it came into my local library.
This book is clearly very well-researched, giving Anne's bacground leading up to the beginning of Lucy Maud Montgomery's o...more
This book is clearly very well-researched, giving Anne's bacground leading up to the beginning of Lucy Maud Montgomery's o...more
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Read in March, 2008
As I have enjoyed the "Anne of Green Gables" series since I was a young girl, I was excited to hear that a prequel was out. However, I am always wary of books about beloved characters NOT written by the original author. So, I was prepared not to get too emotionally attached from the get-go.
I needn't have worried. Budge Wilson does a tremendous job of showing us Anne's early upbringing and marrying it with the "Anne with an e" we come to know and love in the "Green...more
I needn't have worried. Budge Wilson does a tremendous job of showing us Anne's early upbringing and marrying it with the "Anne with an e" we come to know and love in the "Green...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
fans of Anne Shirley
I was concerned that this was going to be glorified Anne Shirley fan fic, but I was pleasantly surprised. The author did a ton of research of what Anne's life before she lived with the Cuthberts, based on what's written in the other books. I had always assumed that Anne's descriptions of her life were slightly exaggerated...after all, Anne's imagination in legendary. However, the author takes it all at face value, and paints a very bleak picture. But somehow Anne manages to come out sunny side u...more
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Read in May, 2008
A new prequel to Anne of Green Gables is obviously met with suspicion. It's not like Pride and Prejudice which has a plethora of sequels, alternative tellings, fan fiction, etc. But it turned out pretty good. Although the author did not capture the tone exactly as L.M. Montgomery wrote, she did capture the essence of Anne - her love of anything beautiful and her imagination. Montgomery's ability to show the thoughts and motivations of characters who are angry or cross - something that works well...more
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Read in March, 2008
I would not recommend this book to anyone except fans of the original work. It is a book that does not live up to its promise. As you read it, you may realize that you loved the book "Anne of Green Gables" as much for L.M. Montgomery's superb writing as for the character of Anne. With a more pedestrian writing style, the magic of the story fades.
Several years ago I started searching out every Montgomery book and short story that I could find, and was captivated by her excellent cha...more
Several years ago I started searching out every Montgomery book and short story that I could find, and was captivated by her excellent cha...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
Anne of Green Gables fans
Before Green Gables is exactly what the title implies - a prequel to the Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery. This story tells about Anne's life before she came to be at the orphange where she is adopted by Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert. I wasn't sure how I was going to like this book because I absolutely LOVE the Green Gables series (Chad & I went to Prince Edward Island for our honeymoon) and I wasn't sure if another author would be able to do Anne justice. I do think t...more
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Read in April, 2008
For anyone who's read Anne of Green Gables this book starts off where Walter and Bertha Shirley are just married and ends where their daughter (of course Anne Shirley) is getting off the train at Bright River to be picked up by Matthew. Love it! Love anything about Anne.
OK it was really cool... kind of shallow but really cool. It just went over in 71 chapters if you can believe it (!!!) all her life of hardship and every family (only 2 families she lived with), both the Thomas's and the H...more
OK it was really cool... kind of shallow but really cool. It just went over in 71 chapters if you can believe it (!!!) all her life of hardship and every family (only 2 families she lived with), both the Thomas's and the H...more
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This was okay, not as good as I was hoping though. Budge Wilson writes a prequel to Anne of Green Gables starting with the story of Anne's parents and ending with Anne waiting for Matthew to pick her up at the station. What happens in between is pretty bleak, no big surprise there, from reading Anne of Green Gables I knew that Anne did not have an easy time before coming to live with the Cuthburts.
I guess what bothered me the most was that I didn't like this Anne as much as I liked the ...more
I guess what bothered me the most was that I didn't like this Anne as much as I liked the ...more
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I liked this prequel, maybe more than I expected to. I liked this Anne. It is clear that Budge worked very hard to be true to the story, to find the details that would explain the type of spirit and survivial and optimism we see at Green Gables. I cried more than once.
One of the most effective parts is that some of the narrative is told in Anne's voice, speaking to Katie Maurice and to Violetta.
No one is evil, because Anne would never see people that way. From the cruelest things, s...more
One of the most effective parts is that some of the narrative is told in Anne's voice, speaking to Katie Maurice and to Violetta.
No one is evil, because Anne would never see people that way. From the cruelest things, s...more
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Read in March, 2008
I really enjoyed this book. Although I was excited by the thought of a prequel to Anne of Green Gables, I wasn't expecting much. I was delightfully surprised. The story is very sad, even with the glimmers of happiness that Anne feels from time to time. There's a lot that doesn't really mesh with what happens to Anne once she's picked up by Matthew at the train station, but those inconsistencies didn't hurt the story as a book by itself. Even though I've read Anne of Green Gable...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommends it for:
Anne of Green Gables fans, LM Montgomery fans
When I first heard about the upcoming prequel to Anne of Green Gables I was nervous about it. It wasn't too far off the mark for me to worry that the new book would not compare to Anne of Green Gables - which is a very beloved novel of mine. However, I was mightily surprised when I read Before Green Gables as it was miraculously able to capture a lot (not all mind you) of Anne's essence that I was originally certain would be missing from this tale. For the die-hards this may still fall a litt...more
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recommends it for:
Anne of Green Gables fans
I really, really enjoyed this book. I am not sure that it was incredibly well written, etc. But it was so great to see what 'happened' to Anne before she came to live with the Cuthberts. I love her even more! When her mother and father died it brought me near to tears. The rest of the book takes you with her to the various places she lives as 'live in' help. It just amazes me she was such a little girl with such huge responsibilities. She was able to go to some school. One time she walked two ho...more
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Read in April, 2008
The author has done a creditable job of recreating the Anne Shirley character in this prequel to the famous and beloved children's books. We follow Anne's story from birth to the moment that she steps on the train to Bright River, headed for Avonlea and the Cuthberts. Of course, this is a saga of Anne's spirit triumphant over adversity. Her gift of imagination carries her through the roughest of times. Anne is a precocious child, according to the novel, and sometimes her precocity is a tad u...more
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I enjoyed this prequel to the Anne books...I'm not sure it's a perfect fit, but how could it be? It was interesting how the author tried to keep the form and tenor of the Anne books while dealing with material that had to be darker--Anne's parents dying, her life as (basically) a servant in home of people who didn't love her, orphanages, etc. And yet somehow she still had to come out of that life smart, talkative, funny, and with a huge vocabulary...
The descriptions of life in families wit...more
The descriptions of life in families wit...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommended to Elisa by:
Saw it on yahoo booksrecommends it for: Anne Fans
This was really a sad book. A very easy read and at time not too believable -- a 5 year old doing those things? As other reviewers have stated, we know what's going to happen --- Anne will end up in P.E. Island -- but just so much of what women had to suffer and go through was really heartbreaking. My sister read the book and she said that it was depressing but I figured she just meant the Anne story part of it, but there are so many other aspects on women's lib and rights that make me glad to b...more
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