Children's Books

[Deleted]

Glad I could help out,whatever. I'm sure your friend's daughter will love it; it's the kind of book literary crushes are made of!

The weird thing is, though, Ann Rinaldi has probably written a dozen historical YA books after she wrote that one, and you'd think they'd be decent, because her first was so good, but they were just crap (imho). It was like she tried to stuff any possible chapter of history where there was was (or could have been) a teenage girl central to the events into a really, really boring story with two dimensional characters. (Actually, she did write one other decent historical novel, about the Civil War, called The Last Silk Dress. But that was it!)

[whatever]

I can't believe no one's mentioned "Anne of Green Gables" - I loved those books and the mini-series. My best friend and I used to pretend we were Diana (me) and Anne (her)

"Anne with an E"

[franticjoy]

whatever said:

I can't believe no one's mentioned "Anne of Green Gables" - I loved those books and the mini-series. My best friend and I used to pretend we were Diana (me) and Anne (her)

"Anne with an E"

While LM Montgomery is my favorite author, Anne isn't my favorite character (that would be Valancy Stirling from The Blue Castle, which is more of a YA book). Anne is so perfect and chipper that she gets on my nerves. Valancy, or Emily Starr, who is bitchy and imperfect and usually unhappy, are more my style.

I just discovered the Pigeon books that you all were discussing near the beginning of the thread, and I love them. I put them on my wishlist, even, along with A Bad Case of the Stripes. That one's definitely getting read to my children.

[whatever]

franticjoy said:

While LM Montgomery is my favorite author, Anne isn't my favorite character (that would be Valancy Stirling from The Blue Castle, which is more of a YA book). Anne is so perfect and chipper that she gets on my nerves. Valancy, or Emily Starr, who is bitchy and imperfect and usually unhappy, are more my style.

Oh, I must disagree. Anne constantly acts and speaks without thinking, and is always screwing something up. That's what my friend is like - huge heart and imagination, but not much common sense. Whereas I am always the sensible overly worried one who gets dragged along.

[franticjoy]

whatever said:

franticjoy said:

While LM Montgomery is my favorite author, Anne isn't my favorite character (that would be Valancy Stirling from The Blue Castle, which is more of a YA book). Anne is so perfect and chipper that she gets on my nerves. Valancy, or Emily Starr, who is bitchy and imperfect and usually unhappy, are more my style.

Oh, I must disagree. Anne constantly acts and speaks without thinking, and is always screwing something up. That's what my friend is like - huge heart and imagination, but not much common sense. Whereas I am always the sensible overly worried one who gets dragged along.

In the first book, you're right- Anne is heedless and impulsive, definitely. Not coincidentally, that's the only book I like her in. From Anne of Avonlea on, she's boring and perfect. By the time The Road to Yesterday (a short story collection in which each story mentions the Blythe family although none of the stories are about them) comes around, I'm so sick of the perfect Blythes I wish I'd never heard of them. Even Rilla, who I like.

[whatever]

franticjoy said:

In the first book, you're right- Anne is heedless and impulsive, definitely. Not coincidentally, that's the only book I like her in. From Anne of Avonlea on, she's boring and perfect. By the time The Road to Yesterday (a short story collection in which each story mentions the Blythe family although none of the stories are about them) comes around, I'm so sick of the perfect Blythes I wish I'd never heard of them. Even Rilla, who I like.

I don't remember any of the books past her being in college. I think I got bored after they got married and stopped reading, once she was the "perfect doctor's wife."

[Deleted]

Anne wasn't so perfect in House of Dreams, the book in which she and Gilbert got married. They even had a (gasp!) arguement; also, I love the part where Gilbert says how beautiful Anne's blond-haired friend Leslie is, and Anne asks wistfully, "Do you wish I had golden hair too?"

I have to agree with you that she turned very bland and boring in Anne of Ingleside.

[franticjoy]

stargirl said:

Anne wasn't so perfect in House of Dreams, the book in which she and Gilbert got married. They even had a (gasp!) arguement; also, I love the part where Gilbert says how beautiful Anne's blond-haired friend Leslie is, and Anne asks wistfully, "Do you wish I had golden hair too?"

I have to agree with you that she turned very bland and boring in Anne of Ingleside.

Although I really like Anne's House of Dreams, I still find Anne herself fairly annoying. I like Leslie a lot, which saves the book for me. I really wish we could have found out more about the Fords in the later books, instead of just small tidbits now and then. I'd rather have read "Leslie of Montreal" than Anne of Ingleside.

I reread the series once or twice a year, and books 2, 6, and 7 are always the ones that take me a couple of days to get through instead of a couple of hours. I think I even like Pat (of Silver Bush) better than Anne...but you know, I think we have a LM Montgomery thread, so I'll go complain about Anne there.

[kafka]

Two questions:

1-- I need help in tracking down a book and I think this is the best thread for it. For almost 20 years, I've been trying to remember the title and author of a YA/children's series about a white German Shepherd. It was a British author and, IIRC, the books were set on some British coastal region or British Isle. There was a family with several children, a white GSD who was a lot like Lassie and was either female or male. Eventually, they got one of the other gender, had a litter and more. But it was very much a coming-of-age story, mixed with some younger Trixie Belden sort of stuff, but always the dogs being the key. Can anyone help me? It was a very popular series at the time it came out in the mid 70s, so I'm hoping someone knows what I'm talking about. It would mean a lot if I could find this book again, and not just for me. I want to get copies for my 9-yr old, animal-crazy, Kafka-worshipping nephew.

2- Many weeks back, I got the Anne of Green Gables short mini-series that is available on Netflix, and I was wondering, how many versions are there? There are many, right? I was basically wondering what is the best version and if I should continue with the ones available on Netflix? The one I saw was a Canadian production with Colleen Dewhurst as whatshername (I'm sorry, I haven't slept in a few days and my memory is shot).

Are all the other sequels on Netflix part of the same production, because, to be honest, the actress playing "Anne" irritated me. Or maybe it was just the way they portrayed the character as a whole. While I love Colleen Dewhurst, I'm thinking of deleting "Anne of Avonlea" from my list. Is it worth hanging onto?

[prydainprincess]

Not sure how many versions of Anne movies they are. The one with Colleeen Dewhurst is very good, though, very close to the books. Anne of Avonlea, though, is the devil. I HATE that one, and it doesn't even come close to the books that followed AGG.