Book Review: Anne's House of Dreams

Anne's House of Dreams by Lucy Maud Montgomery

This is the fifth of eight books in the original Anne of Green Gables series.  I have loved these books since I was a little girl and I have recently started re-reading them.  I love the whole story from the day that Anne arrives with Mathew in Avonlea until Kenneth Ford comes home from war to find Rilla Blythe waiting for him in Glen St. Mary. When I was younger I related best to the young Anne in the first couple of books.  She had a great imagination, was always getting in to scrapes, and even dyed her hair green and nose red.  It also helped that one of my best friends growing up (Stefani Carroll for those of you who know both of us) also had red hair.  We would occasionally pretend that we were Anne and Diana. 

Now, as I am several years older, the wife of a college professor and mother of a wonderful little boy, I relate better to Anne Blythe, newlywedded to Doctor Gilbert Blythe.  I love the way that Ms. Montgomery adjusts the friendships that Anne has from those of a young girl to those of a young married woman.  Friendship is just as important as ever, and although you always cherish and remember fondly the friends you made while growing up, you make new friends that are just as important in your life now as the friends of your youth.  I love the characterizations of Captain Jim, Miss Cornelia Bryant, and lonely and tortured Leslie Moore.  As an adult, friendships can come from the most unexpected places, but if we keep our eyes and hearts open and aren't afraid to go out of our comfort zone to meet new people, we will be able to meet many people who belong to "the race that knows Joseph."