Book Report

Remember book reports? Back when I was in 4^th/ 5^th grade, we read a book of our choice and then wrote a report to read aloud to the whole class. It always ended with, “If you like ____________ (mysteries, baseball, funny stories), I suggest you read this book.” Do schools still do this? I hope so.

 

Meanwhile, some 65 years later, I’m ready to give another book report on Anne of Green Gables, a book I somehow missed as a kid, parent and grandparent. Inspired by an Australian friend who visited Prince Edward Island recently to see the site of her childhood imagination, I decided it’s never too late to read a good kids’ book. And it wasn’t. Here’s my report.

 

Anne of Green Gables turned out to be a surprisingly good book! Even though the main character and almost all supporting characters were girls (and women), I found I could relate to Anne’s character. I liked her rich imagination, her fearlessness in expressing herself, her zest for life, her sincere appreciation of the beauty of the natural world and her competitive spirit determined to outdo her rival Gilbert Blythe. 

The story touches on the universal woes and triumphs of the human spirit— the fickle and capricious friendships and rivalries of childhood, the refusal to forgive those who have insulted or betrayed finally softened over time, the pushing up against the outmoded thought and tradition of the older generation, the ambitions achieved and the ambitions deferred, the savored moments of grace and beauty, the inevitable sorrows of loss and the death of loved ones. All set on a small island in a former time far away from computers, cell phones and national politics. 

 

The author’s gift of evoking and including the natural world in the story’s unfolding is refreshing and brings a poetic touch to the human drama.  Few children’s book authors these days would dare to write, “The wind purred softly in the cherry boughs, the stars twinkled over the pointed firs in the hollow and the mint breaths wafted up.”

 

There is so much wisdom gathered in these pages, the kind of things we rarely talk to children about and are sorely missing in much of today’s wham! bam! action stories. But I believe children are capable of hearing them and tuck them away for future consideration. A few choice examples:

 

“We pay a price for everything we get or take in this world: although ambitions are well-worth having, they are not to be cheaply won, but exact their dues of work and self-denial, anxiety and discouragement.”

 

“When I left school my future seemed to stretch out before me like a straight road. Now there is a bend to it. I don’t know what lies beyond the bend, but I’m going to believe that the best does. It has a fascination of its own, that bend. I wonder how the road beyond it goes—what there is of green glory and soft, checkered light and shadows—what new landscapes—what new beauties—what curves and hills and valleys further on.”

 

“Looking forward to things is half the pleasure of them. You mayn’t get the things themselves, but nothing can prevent you from having the fun of looking forward to them. Mrs. Lyne says, ‘Blessed are they who expect nothing for they shall not be disappointed.’ But I think it would be worse to expect nothing than to be disappointed.”

 

And so on. 

 

I think what most moved me was a story that was so wholly life-affirming, so willing to blend the human drama with the natural world, so daring as to suggest that we all would do better to wholly savor this life as Anne does. This passage near the book’s end summarizes it all:

 

“When she left Matthew’s grave and walked down the long hill that sloped to the Lake of Shining Waters, it was past sunset and all Avonlea lay before her in a dreamlike afterlife— “a haunt of ancient peace.” There was a freshness in the air as of a wind that had blown over honey-sweet fields of clover. Home lights twinkled out here and there among the homestead trees. Beyond lay the sea, misty and purple, with its haunting, unceasing murmur. The west was a glory of soft-mingled hues, and the pond reflected them all in still softer shadings. The beauty of it all thrilled Anne’s heart, and she gratefully opened the gates of her soul to it. 

 

‘Dear old world,’ she murmured, ‘you are very lovely, and I am glad to be alive in you.’”

 

And so am I. 

In summary: If you like memorable characters, poetic descriptions and interesting plot developments, I suggest you read this book.