“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” – Anne of Green Gables

Everyone’s favorite redhead, the spunky Anne Shirley, begins her adventures at Green Gables, a farm outside Avonlea, Prince Edward Island. When the freckled girl realizes that the elderly Cuthberts wanted to adopt a boy instead, she begins to try to win them and, consequently, the reader, over.  (via Goodreads)

Anne of Green Gables is a story that teaches readers about the power of friendship and a testament to the effect of strong women of all sorts on the people around them. Every woman in the Anne series is strong in her own way, and none of them are considered better than the others, which is incredibly refreshing. It’s even more refreshing when you consider the first book was originally published in 1908.

Anne is a delightful character to read about – she’s clever, kind brave, imaginative, and more than a little bit ridiculous, but she’s also vain, easily distracted, and self-centered. Her world is simple and restrictive, but Anne brings light to almost everyone who meets her, expanding their worlds to hold a little bit more joy just by being herself.

I first watched this series with my mom and grandmother when I was little, and Prince Edward Island has always seemed like a magical place. I’d still love to go visit and see what the island is really like, because I feel like a lot of my childhood was spent there, between pages and through film. This series still reminds me of my grandmother, because she was very much like Marilla. Many of my memories of her are us reading this series together, because she loved this series so much, and because I was so young at the time.

I love this series in many forms, whether it’s the books, the animated movie, the Kevin Sullivan miniseries (which I have to admit is my favorite adaptation), or the multiple vlog series’ that have come out – Green Gables Fables and Project Green Gables. This series just warms my heart every time I come back to it. There’s going to be a new adaptation coming to Netflix in 2017, and I can’t wait to watch that, too.

If you haven’t read them, or watched any of these film adaptations, I cannot recommend it enough. I feel so at home with these characters and this setting. These characters are as familiar to me as some of my cousins, and I want so desperately to share them with you.

“Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?”