Emily of New Moon

Since my middle name is Anne (most definitely with an 'E'!) I was always a fan of the Anne of Green Gables series. I love almost all of L.M. Montgomery's books though. The Blue Castle, Kilmeny of the Orchard, and the Pat of Silver Bush books are all excellent. I had forgotten how wonderful the Emily novels were till I recently picked them up again on a whim. The Emily novels consist of three books: Emily of New Moon, Emily Climbs, and Emily's Quest.

Emily of New Moon starts out when Emily Byrd Starr, aged not quite eleven, is not yet Emily of New Moon. She lives with her father, who is estranged from her late mother's family, the Murrays of New Moon. After the death of her father, the orphaned Emily is taken to live with Aunt Elizabeth, Aunt Laura, and Cousin Jimmy at the New Moon farm.

These books are classic L.M. Montgomery. Emily is a serious, curious, occasionally pert little girl, who generally means well, but often gets in trouble with the aunts because of the things she says that they just don't understand. She loves nature, spending hours with her friend "the Wind Woman", and various trees and flowers and cats and gardens. Emily's other great passion is writing: she starts by writing letters to her dead father, which soon progresses to writing stories and poetry. In Emily of New Moon Emily meets Teddy, a semi-invalid with a jealously possessive mother, Perry the hired hand at the farm, who is also an orphan, and Ilse, whose mother is dead and whose father is neglectful. The four of them have many different adventures, and Emily learns to love New Moon in spite of her sorrow over the death of her father.

Emily Climbs continues as the four children go to high school in nearby Shrewsbury. Emily has to board with the unlikeable Aunt Ruth, and sufferes many misadventures as she attempts to get an education, continue her writing, and yet not disgrace the Murrays. Emily, Ilse, Teddy, and Perry are all about 14 when this book starts, and 17 when it ends, at an age when romance is beginning to blossom. Emily receives a fantastic career offer, and must decide whether or not she is ready to leave New Moon.

Emily's Quest continues the story after high school. I read it once in fourth or fifth grade, but I haven't re-read it yet, so I can't give you any details. I'm planning to take it with me when we go to New York this week though (that's right! I said NEW YORK) so I'll fill you in on how it ends later!

I highly recommend giving these books a read: if not for nostalgia of a bygone era, just because Emily is a likeable, stubborn little girl. I think you'll like them, especially if you liked Anne of Green Gables.

P.S. And if you don't like reading...there have been both a Canadian television series and a Japanese anime series based on the Emily books, so you can always watch the story instead of reading it....but you'll miss out on L.M. Montgomery's moralistic but entertaining prose.