Sara Luttfring

I loved this book when I was young, and I recently revisited it. I was pleased to find that it was as funny and charming as I’d remembered it — unabashedly whimsical, but also self-aware. One thing I hadn’t remembered about the book was its emphasis on reading and education. Anne is a dedicated scholar (she is particularly gifted in writing and literature), and she is determined, competitive, and ambitious in her academic pursuits. In giving these qualities to a rural orphan girl, L. M. Montgomery appears to have been ahead of her time, and I’m sure that Anne served as an inspiration to my own budding scholarly tendencies.