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piburnjones 's review for:
Anne of Avonlea
by L.M. Montgomery
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Anne of Avonlea covers the two years that Anne spends teaching in the Avonlea village school. Some things stay the same: Anne still gets into some classic Anne hijinks. Friends like Diana, Marilla, Rachel Lynde, and Gilbert Blythe are still central. But several key plot threads belong to new characters.
Early in the book, Marilla and Anne take in twins Davy and Dora. If it weren’t for calling them twins all the time, we might easily forget Dora, who quickly blends into the background. Davy has all of Anne’s curiosity and, being six, even less self-restraint than when we met Anne in the first book. I find him exhausting.
In the second half of the book, we keep coming back to Miss Lavender and Paul Irving, who both share Anne’s imaginative side. Paul’s introduction is uneven: We hear about him second hand and learn that he instantly becomes Anne’s favorite pupil, but our first extensive introduction is through a long letter he turns in as a class assignment. It’s… a lot.
Miss Lavender practically has an enchanted house in the woods and instantly turns out to be a kindred spirit, to the point where it’s almost hilarious that Anne hasn’t encountered her before now. It’s easy to imagine Anne living like Miss Lavender one day… if the narration weren’t hitting me over the head with the fact that Gilbert is carrying a torch for her.
By the end, it feels like there is already distinctly less focus on Anne herself in this one – the spotlight is very much shared, though her interests definitely guide it. And we definitely don’t spend much time in Anne’s classroom. Are we starting to see Montgomery start to lose interest in her protagonist already?
Early in the book, Marilla and Anne take in twins Davy and Dora. If it weren’t for calling them twins all the time, we might easily forget Dora, who quickly blends into the background. Davy has all of Anne’s curiosity and, being six, even less self-restraint than when we met Anne in the first book. I find him exhausting.
In the second half of the book, we keep coming back to Miss Lavender and Paul Irving, who both share Anne’s imaginative side. Paul’s introduction is uneven: We hear about him second hand and learn that he instantly becomes Anne’s favorite pupil, but our first extensive introduction is through a long letter he turns in as a class assignment. It’s… a lot.
Miss Lavender practically has an enchanted house in the woods and instantly turns out to be a kindred spirit, to the point where it’s almost hilarious that Anne hasn’t encountered her before now. It’s easy to imagine Anne living like Miss Lavender one day… if the narration weren’t hitting me over the head with the fact that Gilbert is carrying a torch for her.
By the end, it feels like there is already distinctly less focus on Anne herself in this one – the spotlight is very much shared, though her interests definitely guide it. And we definitely don’t spend much time in Anne’s classroom. Are we starting to see Montgomery start to lose interest in her protagonist already?