Happy 100th Birthday!

I decided that I HAVE to go to Prince Edward Island this year! I want to be able to take part in the celebrations for Anne's 100th birthday. Yes, Lucy Maud Montgomery's bestselling book about the little orphaned redhead was published in 1908. I was there in 1991 aftr working in a Summer Camp in New York - I travelled about 2 days on a Greyhound to get to the ferry! It was worth it - the island was enchanting! I only had 3 days there which was not long enough at all to pay homage.

I remember the first time I read the book, I had chicken pox, the worst case that the doctor had ever seen and I was off school for about six weeks. I had just turned ten. I had exhausted my bulging bookcase. I picked up this grotty, falling apart paperback from my sister's bookcase and within thirty minutes I knew that I was onto something!! I was in book heaven! I just loved all the characters - they were so vivid. The same goes for LMM's other books - she just had the most amazing gift for conjuring up characters that were so real. Even in her books of short stories she manages to make you care for the characters within a paragraph or two.

When the 1985 ish Kevin Sullivan production came along I was flabbergasted at his casting - he just had it spot on. Megan Follows was the Anne I had always pictured. The same goes for Colleen Dewhurst, Richard Farnsworth, Jonathon Crombie (swoon) and Schuyler Grant - all just wonderful. I adored Richard Farnsworth especially - I was so sad to hear of his suicide. The scene with Anne's "puffed sleeves" in the stable is such a tear jerker - my Dad ALWAYS has to wipe his eyes. Hagood Hardy did a wonderful job with the music too - "Anne's Theme" is just so Anne!!!! Gosh, I have tears in my eyes just thinking about it!!!!!

I recently read"Before Green Gables" by Budge Wilson. She had been asked by LMM's estate to write a prequel to A of GG. I was a bit worried that it would be awful, as so many prequels/sequels of classic books by other authors are. But she got it just right! I loved it. Bertha and Walter were described as I had always imagined them. It was a great insight into Anne's early childhood before Marilla and Matthew saved her. I believe that a tv special of this is in production - I am not sure how that will be but ... we'll see!

So here's to Lucy Maud Montgomery! Thanks for giving us one of the most enchanting characters in juvenille literature! Anne ... with an e.