Tweetspeak Poetry

  • Home
  • FREE prompts
  • Earth Song
  • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • Teaching Tools
  • Books, Etc.
  • Patron Love

Children’s Book Club: Anne With an E in ‘Anne of Green Gables’

By Megan Willome 2 Comments

Portland Head lighthouse

In Which We Are Surprised by Anne with an E

The question is not “to be or not to be.” The question is would you rather be “divinely beautiful, dazzlingly clever, or angelically good”? It’s the surprising question Anne with an E asks Matthew Cuthbert, her new guardian, in chapter two of L.M. Montgomery’s classic Anne of Green Gables.

Matthew responds in typical Matthew-fashion. “”Well now, I—I don’t know exactly.”

Anne asks because she can’t decide from among the three choices. But do you know who could decide? Instantly? The three hosts of the Close Reads podcast, which tends to read classics. When the Close Reads gang asked themselves Anne’s question, each person knew immediately which answer was correct, and each person chose differently. It’s become a podcast joke, referring to each other by which Anne-attribute they most aspire to.

But what if you could be all three? What if you could be clever and beautiful and good and bring out cleverness and beauty and goodness in others? Anne is a little like the person described in Robert Browning’s poem, Evelyn Hope:

“The good stars met in your horoscope,
Made you of spirit and fire and dew.”

Anne is all three — spirit and fire and dew — and everyone in her orbit has their horoscope improved. She renames the Avenue (such a boring name!) the White Way of Delight and rechristens Barry’s Pond as the Lake of Shining Waters. And in seeing them that way, she makes everyone else see them that way too. There is a small pond I pass on one of my bike routes that I refer to as the Sacred Lake because Anne taught me to see it with clever-beautiful-good eyes.

Anne of Green Gables is the first and best-known of the books about Prince Edward Island’s favorite orphan, Anne Shirley, as told in the seven book series. Although the first book has been popular since it was published in 1908, there are people who don’t think it’s their cup of raspberry cordial. One my best-read friends, age 50, recently read it for the first time. About halfway through she texted, “I cannot get over how wonderful this book is. I don’t want it to end.”

Here is the plot: Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, a pair of unmarried, aging siblings, want to adopt a boy to help around their farm. Instead, they get Anne with an E, a girl with red hair who believes it’s ever so much easier to be good if your clothes are fashionable, especially if you are fortunate enough to wear a dress with puffed sleeves. She surprises Matthew. She surprises Marilla. She surprises their neighbor, Mrs. Rachel Lynde. And she surprises us, making us see life as ever so much more poetical and tragical and laughable and, as my friend wrote, “wonderful.” Wonder-full.

In her new home at Green Gables, Anne makes people better, just by being herself. She becomes the bosom friend of Diana Barry (her kindred spirit) and the friend/rival/future love interest of Gilbert Blythe (for the whole story, you’ll have to read deeper into the series).

And yes, Anne has a temper, and no, she never stops talking, and whatever you do, don’t let her serve you tea without an adult chaperone. But life with Anne is lived under good stars. Even if you never call her Cordelia.

___________________________

Once Upon a Camel cover

Let’s travel to adventure with the last camel in Texas, a mountain lion, and a family of kestrels. Join us Friday, February 11, for Once Upon a Camel, a middle-grade story by an Kathi Appelt, an award-winning novelist, with illustrations by Eric Rohmann, an award-winning illustrator.

Photo by polashphotography, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Megan Willome.

rainbow crow front cover outlined
5 star

“Megan Willome has captured the essence of crow in this delightful children’s collection. Not only do the poems introduce the reader to the unusual habits and nature of this bird, but also different forms of poetry as well.”

—Michelle Ortega, poet and children’s speech pathologist

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Megan Willome
Megan Willome
Megan Willome is a writer, editor, and author of The Joy of Poetry: How to Keep, Save & Make Your Life With Poems and Rainbow Crow: poems in and out of form. Her day is incomplete without poetry, tea, and a walk in the dark.
Megan Willome
Latest posts by Megan Willome (see all)
  • Perspective: The Two, The Only: Calvin and Hobbes - December 16, 2022
  • Children’s Book Club: A Very Haunted Christmas - December 9, 2022
  • By Heart: ‘The night is darkening round me’ by Emily Brontë - December 2, 2022

Filed Under: Anne of Green Gables, Blog, Children's Authors, Children's Book Club

Try Every Day Poems...

About Megan Willome

Megan Willome is a writer, editor, and author of The Joy of Poetry: How to Keep, Save & Make Your Life With Poems and Rainbow Crow: poems in and out of form. Her day is incomplete without poetry, tea, and a walk in the dark.

Comments

  1. Bethany R. says

    January 14, 2022 at 6:01 pm

    Megan, what a delight! Thank you for opening this book up here. I adore Anne, Marilla, and, dear, dear Matthew (who reminds me of my late stepfather).

    And the narration! Getting to “hear” Marilla’s thoughts as she acclimates to Anne is one of my favorite parts.

    Reply
    • Megan Willome says

      January 14, 2022 at 10:22 pm

      Thanks, Bethany! They all feel like real people I knew a long, long time ago.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Take How to Read a Poem

Get the Introduction, the Billy Collins poem, and Chapter 1

get the sample now

Welcome to Tweetspeak

New to Tweetspeak Poetry? Start here, in The Mischief Café. You're a regular? Check out our May Menu

Patron Love

❤️

Welcome a little patron love, when you help keep the world poetic.

The Graphic Novel

"Stunning, heartbreaking, and relevant illustrations"

Callie Feyen, teacher

read a summary of The Yellow Wallpaper

meet The Yellow Wallpaper characters

How to Write Poetry

Your Comments

  • Glynn on World War II Had Its Poets, Too
  • Sandra Fox Murphy on World War II Had Its Poets, Too
  • Glynn on Poets and Poems: Kelly Belmonte and “The Mother of All Words”
  • Bethany R. on Poets and Poems: Kelly Belmonte and “The Mother of All Words”

Featured In

We're happy to have been featured in...

The Huffington Post

The Paris Review

The New York Observer

Tumblr Book News

Stay in Touch With Us

Categories

Learn to Write Form Poems

How to Write an Acrostic

How to Write a Ballad

How to Write a Catalog Poem

How to Write a Ghazal

How to Write a Haiku

How to Write an Ode

How to Write a Pantoum

How to Write a Rondeau

How to Write a Sestina

How to Write a Sonnet

How to Write a Villanelle

5 FREE POETRY PROMPTS

Get 5 FREE inbox poetry prompts from the popular book How to Write a Poem

Shakespeare Resources

Poetry Classroom: Sonnet 18

Common Core Picture Poems: Sonnet 73

Sonnet 104 Annotated

Sonnet 116 Annotated

Character Analysis: Romeo and Juliet

Character Analysis: Was Hamlet Sane or Insane?

Why Does Hamlet Wait to Kill the King?

10 Fun Shakespeare Resources

About Shakespeare: Poet and Playwright

Top 10 Shakespeare Sonnets

See all 154 Shakespeare sonnets in our Shakespeare Library!

Explore Work From Black Poets

About Us

  • • A Blessing for Writers
  • • Our Story
  • • Meet Our Team
  • • Literary Citizenship
  • • Poet Laura
  • • Poetry for Life: The 5 Vital Approaches
  • • T. S. Poetry Press – All Books
  • • Contact Us

Write With Us

  • • 5 FREE Poetry Prompts-Inbox Delivery
  • • 30 Days to Richer Writing Workshop
  • • Poetry Prompts
  • • Submissions
  • • The Write to Poetry

Read With Us

  • • All Our Books
  • • Book Club
  • • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • • Literacy Extras
  • • Poems to Listen By: Audio Series
  • • Poet-a-Day
  • • Poets and Poems
  • • 50 States Projects
  • • Charlotte Perkins Gilman Poems Library
  • • Edgar Allan Poe Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Blake Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Shakespeare Sonnet Library

Celebrate With Us

  • • Poem on Your Pillow Day
  • • Poetic Earth Month
  • • Poet in a Cupcake Day
  • • Poetry at Work Day
  • • Random Acts of Poetry Day
  • • Take Your Poet to School Week
  • • Take Your Poet to Work Day

Gift Ideas

  • • Every Day Poems
  • • Our Shop
  • • Everybody Loves a Book!

Connect

  • • Donate
  • • Blog Buttons
  • • By Heart
  • • Shop for Tweetspeak Fun Stuff

Copyright © 2025 Tweetspeak Poetry · FAQ, Disclosure & Privacy Policy