All this week on her blog my daughter has been having a celebration in honour of Lucy Maud Montgomery. It’s been a lot of fun to read the posts and comments and participate in the “tag” she created. You can read my answers here if you want.

So this week I thought I would do something a little different for the “Library Time” post. I have taught Anne of Green Gables in our homeschool literature class. There are two books that I found to be very helpful.

First of all is one that I was given as a gift about thirty years ago – The Anne of Green Gables Treasury. I checked on Amazon – it’s only available used. I love this book though and have used it a lot – not just for our literature class.

One of the features that I love is that none of the pictures show Anne’s face. This leaves everyone able to just keep imagining Anne the way they do (although I suspect that at this point many of us have a picture of Anne as portrayed by Megan Follows). I like that thoughtfulness in the preparation of this book.

This book has eight chapters and talks about the Anne books and her world, a timeline of Anne’s life, school, cooking, crafts, clothes and gardening. There are recipes to replicate a tea like Anne would have served Diana (only I hope you remember to put the cake in the flour), a variety of simple crafts to help recreate Anne’s life, and simple garden projects. 

This really is a delightful book, and if you know a girl who loves Anne this would make a great gift. Any girl from eight on up would enjoy this book.

The second book is for someone a little older. The Annotated Anne of Green Gables obviously has the text of the book with notes, but it also has so much more.

The book starts with a chronology of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s life which is fascinating. There are also numerous appendices covering a variety of topics some of which are: the celtic influence in Anne, orphans and adoption, education, gardening, cooking, songs, recitation pieces.

The books closes with copies of some of the original reviews of the book. They are so much fun to read. One thing for sure, everyone loved this book from the get-go. It was funny to read the ending of the review from The Spectator, London, March 13, 1090 because they totally missed the mark…

“…the result is so excellent that awe trust she will refrain from running the greater risk of writing a sequel. Having sown her wild oats, ‘the Anne-girl’ could never be so attractive as the little witch, half imp, half angel, whose mental and spiritual growth is vividly set forth in these genial pages.”

There is also a substantial bibliography for anyone who wants to do further study and research. I would say that this book is a must for anyone wanting to do a serious study of Anne of Green Gables.

Today I have a guest post on my daughter’s blog about my five favourite Montgomery books. You can check it out here.

What is your favourite Lucy Maud Montgomery book?