This collection of essays brings together passionate readers and literary critics from Canada, the US, Japan, and Australia. The essays ruminate on readers’ individual and collective relationships to one of the most iconic characters of Western literature: Anne of Green Gables. This relationship is imagined and interrogated through a range of critical and creative lenses, including studies of fan culture, translation, adaptation and imagination. The collection is unique in inviting responses that draw deeply on personal connections to Anne, and the ways that readers’ relationships to her have shifted over time. The book will appeal most particularly to readers seeking essays and other works that bridge the divide between a critical and a more personal response to ‘our Anne girl’.

This collection of essays brings together passionate readers and literary critics from Canada, the US, Japan, and Australia. The essays ruminate on readersâ (TM) individual and collective relationships to one of the most iconic characters of Western literature: Anne of Green Gables. This relationship is imagined and interrogated through a range of critical and creative lenses, including studies of fan culture, translation, adaptation and imagination. The collection is unique in inviting responses that draw deeply on personal connections to Anne, and the ways that readersâ (TM) relationships to her have shifted over time. The book will appeal most particularly to readers seeking essays and other works that bridge the divide between a critical and a more personal response to â ~our Anne girlâ (TM).

When no one stands up to a bully, can anyone be truly safe? “Weaves together a tender and poignant coming-of-age story with a powerful narrative.” —Lyn Yeowart, author of The Silent Listener Tormented at school, ten-year-old Jane wants a best friend more than anything. Her wish is answered when Acacia moves in next door, and a carefree summer break beckons. Yet as their friendship blossoms and secrets are shared, Acacia remains stubbornly guarded about her home life, especially when it comes to her mother’s new boyfriend Daryl, a Harley-riding ladies’ man. At a neighborhood party, Jane stumbles onto a disturbing scene involving Daryl and is coerced into silence. Frightened and confused, she stays quiet, but when sounds of violence start emerging from Acacia’s house, she hopes an adult will intervene. Instead, everyone turns a blind eye. Jane’s own family seems to be deteriorating into chaos too, as if the darkness in Acacia’s house is spreading like ripples in a pond. It will end in disaster if no one acts, and it may end in tragedy if someone does . . . “A brave and hugely necessary book.” —Tabitha Bird, author of The Emporium of Imagination

An affecting biography of the author of Anne of Green Gables is the first for young readers to include revelations about her last days and to encompass the complexity of a brilliant and sometimes troubled life. Once upon a time, there was a girl named Maud who adored stories. When she was fourteen years old, Maud wrote in her journal, “I love books. I hope when I grow up to be able to have lots of them.” Not only did Maud grow up to own lots of books, she wrote twenty-four of them herself as L. M. Montgomery, the world-renowned author of Anne of Green Gables. For many years, not a great deal was known about Maud’s personal life. Her childhood was spent with strict, undemonstrative grandparents, and her reflections on writing, her lifelong struggles with anxiety and depression, her “year of mad passion,” and her difficult married life remained locked away, buried deep within her unpublished personal journals. Through this revealing and deeply moving biography, kindred spirits of all ages who, like Maud, never gave up “the substance of things hoped for” will be captivated anew by the words of this remarkable woman.

A charming and heartwarming true story for anyone who has ever longed for a place to belong. “Anne of Green Gables,” My Daughter, and Me is a witty romp through the classic novel; a visit to the magical shores of Prince Edward Island; and a poignant personal tale of love, faith, and loss. And it all started with a simple question: “What’s an orphan?” The words from her adopted daughter, Phoebe, during a bedtime reading of Anne of Green Gables stopped Lorilee Craker in her tracks. How could Lorilee, who grew up not knowing her own birth parents, answer Phoebe’s question when she had wrestled all her life with feeling orphaned—and learned too well that not every story has a happy ending? So Lorilee set off on a quest to find answers in the pages of the very book that started it all, determined to discover—and teach her daughter—what home, family, and belonging really mean. If you loved the poignancy of Orphan Train and the humor of Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, you will be captivated by “Anne of Green Gables,” My Daughter, and Me. It’s a beautiful memoir that deftly braids three lost girls’ stories together, speaks straight to the heart of the orphan in us all, and shows us the way home at last.

The characters, plots, and potent language of C. S. Lewis's novels reveal everywhere the modern writer' admiration for Dante's Divine Comedy. Throughout his career Lewis drew on the structure, themes, and narrative details of Dante's medieval epic to present his characters as spiritual pilgrims growing toward God. Dante's portrayal of sin and sanctification, of human frailty and divine revelation, are evident in all of Lewis's best work. Readers will see how a modern author can make astonishingly creative use of a predecessor's material - in this case, the way Lewis imitated and adapted medieval ideas about spiritual life for the benefit of his modern audience. Nine chapters cover all of Lewis's novels, from Pilgrim's Regress and his science-fiction to The Chronicles of Narnia and Till We Have Faces. Readers will gain new insight into the sources of Lewis's literary imagination that represented theological and spiritual principles in his clever, compelling, humorous, and thoroughly human stories.