I just discovered ‘Anne of Green Gables’, read the first book and absolutely loved it. It evoke many happy childhood memories, as I was - like Anne - a dreamy and playful child. I’m now in my early 30s, live in a German speaking country (where I also grew up) and have never heard of Anne before, until I stumbled across the title in this subreddit and later across the book in the english section of “my” library. I read A LOT as a child and also was read to a lot. But never heard of Anne. Nobody I mentioned the book to has heard of it either, except a friend who saw the Netflix series.
I’m curious to hear how popular Anne is in English speaking parts of the world. And if you have childhood memories of reading ‘Anne’ or other children’s book classics - feel free to share :)
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We took a field trip in elementary school to watch a play based off of the books.
I think that its very widely known in the English speaking world. It generally gets considered though as a children’s book and especially as one for girls so it probably doesn’t get much talked about outside of that category.
I read it as a pre-teen growing up in America! I’m Australian, and no one here knows about Anne.
I also read all the Nancy Drew books, this would have been in the late 90s.
In Australia, we have books like ‘Looking For Alibrandi’ and ‘Tomorrow, When the War Began’ which are YA classics. Growing up in America, I read books like ‘A Tree Grows In Brooklyn’, ‘Hatchet’ and ‘The Giver’.
no one here knows about Anne
Disagree. I’m in Australia in my early 30s and would say that the book is reasonably well known at least amongst women my age.
The Canadian TV movies were quite popular here in the 80s/90s.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn has been my favorite book since 5th grade.
American here, and at least when I was growing up, Anne and all it’s sequels were pretty much standard reading if you were a girl age 9-12 and enjoyed books. Probably a top 5 most loved series for tween girls in the mid-to-late 90s. Right up there with Little House and Babysitters Club. I still reread the series now as an adult every couple years.
I am actually from Prince Edward Island, so I grew up steeped in Anne culture and L.M. Montgomery. It is obviously huge there. :-)
You might also like Emily of New Moon by the same author.
If you can find the “Anne of Green Gables” and “Anne of Avonlea” series (short) that Disney released in the 1990s, starring Megan Follows, you might enjoy them. They diverge from the books but many American girls who grew up then adore these adaptations.
I had the set as a child but never read them all because they were not my taste. But I think it’s a pretty well known series.
As a curious fact, I knew her because of the anime that was televised in the 80s in Spain, I didn’t know about the books at that time, I was a child then.
Read the books in elementary school in the 80’s. The Disney Channel also showed the movie based on “Anne of Green Gables”, and the television series “Avonlea” which stems from it.
I’m from Finland and I’ve read it several times and it’s been translated in to Finnish in the 1920’s as the other L. M. Montgomery’s novels (i.e. Emily of New Moon) and also Louise M. Alcott’s Little women series.
Imo it’s part of the English children’s literature canon and so quite well known in English speaking countries.
How well known is a Canadian English written book known in the English speaking world? Am I reading this right?
it’s pretty big over here…but then again i live in canada.XD
I live on PEI. People come here from all over the world to this day because of Anne. She is still super popular in the English-speaking world and in the non-English-speaking world.