It was almost 150 years ago this month, 117 to be exact, in June 1908, that Lucy Maud Montgomery’s book Anne of Green Gables was published. Let’s have a birthday party for the Anne book! Anne’s birthday is in March, and Lucy Maud’s is November 30, but the book’s birthday is in June, so let’s celebrate!
I read the whole series of 8 Anne books in my teen years, plus almost all of the other books that Lucy Maud wrote, such as Emily of New Moon (3 books), Chronicles of Avonlea (1 and 2), Kilmeny of the Orchard, Jane of Lantern Hill, The Story Girl, and Magic for Marigold. I also enjoyed watching some of the episodes of “The Road to Avonlea,” based on The Story Girl, on the old Disney channel. So yes, I’m a huge fan of Lucy Maud and all her works.
(Nothing like those ’80s book covers with the titles in the swoopy font to bring back memories of my jr. high and high school years! I used my babysitting money to buy these from the BYU Bookstore.)
L.M. was offered a flat rate of $500 to get her AOGG book published, with no royalties. She decided she couldn’t sell Anne for that price. She negotiated with the publisher, agreeing to the terms of a lower fee upfront, with L.M. getting 9 cents per copy sold. For generations, millions of fans around the world are so grateful that she finally found a publisher for the book.
I count myself as one of those fans. Anne of Green Gables is my absolute favorite book outside of scripture. The reason I love it so much is because it shows the life of a young woman growing from an orphan seeking love, endearing herself to her newfound family, developing her talents, overcoming her character flaws, and pursuing scholar phase. I resonated with her scholar phase, loving the fact that it showed a teen girl winning a college scholarship. Few novels show a girl doing that! In the series, Anne goes on to get married, have children, and a full, loving family life. She also becomes a community influencer as she mingles with so many different neighbors, encountering stories of joy and sorrow. Her story is just such a great tale of lovely feminine ordinary life. I have just found so much joy in reading these books and relating to them.
With that introduction, now here are some ideas to help you celebrate the birthday of the book!
Get the above book from your public library or order online and dive in! It has recipes, Anne’s family tree, crafts, maps, and descriptions of all things Anne!
Have a party to celebrate!
Set the right mood for the party by playing the soundtrack from the 1980s miniseries video here.
Make some food from the recipes in the book above or below. The cookbook below is by Maud’s granddaughter, Kate.
If you don’t want to find a book to get recipes, this website here has recipes for some food, whether you have Anne’s Golden picnic, or just a party, these foods listed below all look fun! They are all mentioned in the AOGG book. They are written by two Anne fan librarians who did research to make the recipes as authentic as possible.
–Anne’s “unpoetical” sandwiches
–Anne’s Buttercup Cake (see the authors’ note at the bottom of the second recipe, the modern one, where they realize they used too much flour, so that’s why it tasted too dry and dense!)
-Marilla’s Matchless Plum Puffs are here (those are actually mentioned in Anne of Avonlea, as well as the Golden Picnic)
So that’s the food you can have at the party. What about activities?
-Run a 3 legged race, just like Anne and her bestie Diana did in the book at the Sunday School picnic
-Play “Guess Who Said What?” Grab your copy of the book, take turns reading aloud quotes from the book, and guess which character said it.
-Take the “Which Anne of Green Gables Character Are You?” quiz, online, or print one out.
-have a book exchange, since Anne loved books and became an English teacher. Ask everyone to bring a used book, especially one that is classic fiction, and then swap books. Ben Hur anyone? That’s the book she’s caught reading at school instead of doing math.
-host an Anne of Green Gables movie marathon! Watch Kevin Sullivan’s rendition of Anne of Green Gables here with or without the sequel, Anne of Avonlea. That’s the only Anne movie/video series worth watching, IMHO. It’s a made -for-TV- miniseries from 1985. My sisters and I watched it over and over. None of the other versions come even close! It’s just so beautiful and classy with the best cast. Megan Follows = the perfect Anne, plus Jonathan Crombie = the perfect Gilbert. I also wouldn’t bother with the latter two movies on that site, as they don’t follow the storyline of the original books. I will dispense with my rant on that and move on…
Here are more fun things to do regardless of whether or not you have a party:
Watch this behind-the-scenes video of the Kevin Sullivan production below.
Watch the biography of Lucy Maud below. (Trigger warning for any time you dive into any of her biographies: tragically, Maud died by suicide. Her granddaughter revealed this family secret in 2008. Just a heads up for watching any of her biographies with young people or anyone affected by suicide.)
Take a video tour of the real Green Gables. Yes, Anne’s story is fiction, but GG was based on a real home! This was the home of Maud’s cousins, the Macneills. You can also see the site where L.M. wrote the book. That home is gone but the land remains. The video also shows the post office where L.M. worked, and from where she mailed her manuscript one last time and finally struck gold with getting it published.
A new book just came out all about Green Gables, including the diary of Maud’s cousin, Myrtle Macneill Webb, detailing life in the home as it became a tourist attraction.
Listen to Megan Follows read aloud some of the book below. She shaped my teenagehood so much with her magnificent portrayal of Anne. I think every ’80s girl probably feels the same way.
Play with some Anne of Green Gables paper dolls here, here on etsy or here in amazon. When/if I get granddaughters, we’ll be playing with these!
Read all the books in the series, for the first time, or all over again! You can read them all here or listen to at least the first three volumes here. This page over here is a great guide as to how to read the books, with summaries of each one.
Check out the wiki fandom website here.
Listen to the Maudcast, a podcast about L.M. Montgomery, over here.
Listen to the Kindred Spirits Podcast here.
Discover the world before Anne came to Green Gables, with fan fiction. What was Marilla like as a little girl? What wounds did she carry from childhood which made her so austere as Anne’s foster mother? How did Marilla meet Gilbert Blythe’s father? What were Anne’s parents like? Where did Katie Maurice come from? How did Anne know how to get Minnie May through the dark night of whooping cough? How did Anne get such an active imagination? Get all the answers from these books!
I thought I had read everything there is relating to Anne. Then I discovered Before Green Gables. I got it on CD from my local public library. If you can find it, snatch it up! The narrator, Rene Raudman, does a beautiful job bringing Anne to life. I love all the voices she has for the different characters of the story.
It is the story of Anne Shirley before she comes to live with Marilla and Matthew on Prince Edward Island. It is written by a Canadian author, Budge Wilson, who was authorized by the heirs of L.M. Montgomery to write the book. It is just as delightful as L.M.’s books! If you love the Anne books, you will probably love this one too. The book starts before Anne’s birth and goes right up to the day when Matthew picks her up at the Bright River station, which is where AOGG starts.
After I read BGG I found Marilla of Green Gables. I started it and haven’t finished it. On my TBR list for this summer!
Happy reading and celebrating! I hope you have fun with these resources and strengthen your kindred spirit relationships with those who love Anne.
“We can miss so much out of life if we don’t love, the more we love, the richer life is.” as Anne Shirley Blythe says, in Anne’s House of Dreams, #4 in the series.
Tree of Life Mothering 