Anne of Green Gables and the Newness of Tomorrow

"Marilla, isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?"

The new year is a time for reflection and renewal. It provides an opportunity to turn over a new leaf, dream big, set goals, and make changes. Everything feels fresh, and the world is full of possibilities.

Anne Shirley felt this way with each new day. She didn’t have to wait for the new year to begin. Instead, Anne started her mornings with those feelings of freshness and renewal.

In Anne of Green Gables, Anne feels disgraced after baking Mrs. Allan a cake that she flavored with liniment instead of vanilla. Anne lamented, "I shall always be pointed at as the girl who flavored a cake with anodyne liniment." Mrs. Allan comforts Anne saying, "My dear little girl, you mustn’t cry like this...Why, it’s all just a funny mistake that anybody might make." Anne responds forlornly, "Oh, no, it takes me to make such a mistake." After they talk more, Mrs. Allan helps turn things around so that Anne finds some enjoyment in the evening.

Later, Anne tells Marilla, "Marilla, isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?" The ever-practical Marilla responds, "I’ll warrant you’ll make plenty in it...I never saw your beat for making mistakes, Anne."

In Anne of Avonlea, Anne arrives home at Green Gables after a hard day teaching. She recounts her day to Marilla who listens to the whole story. Marilla responds by quoting Anne’s old words back to her: "Well, never mind. This day’s done and there’s a new one coming tomorrow, with no mistakes in it yet, as you used to say yourself. Just come downstairs and have your supper. You’ll see if a good cup of tea and those plum puffs I made today won’t hearten you up."

At first, Anne cannot take Marilla’s words to heart, and she responds, "Plum puffs won’t minister to a mind diseased." But, in the end, Marilla’s words and her delicious plum puffs worked wonders, and Anne did hearten up over their cheerful supper. Then Anne "had a good sleep that night and awakened in the morning to find herself and the world transformed."

As she got dressed for the new day, Anne sings,

"Every morn is a fresh beginning,
Every morn is the world made new,"

Anne Shirley believed that the world could transform over night. Isn’t it nice to think of a new, fresh day with no flaws, blunders, or misunderstandings? No matter how bad a mistake might feel, one can start fresh and begin again tomorrow.

Image credit:
Drawing of Anne Shirley running down a red road on Prince Edward Island from Akage no An, the anime production of Anne of Green Gables.

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Created January 8, 2024.
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November—with uncanny witchery

"November—with uncanny witchery in its changed trees. With murky red sunsets flaming in smoky crimson behind the westering hills. With dear days when the austere woods were beautiful and gracious in a dignified serenity of folded hands and closed eyes—days full of a fine, pale sunshine that sifted through the late, leafless gold of the juniper-trees and glimmered among the grey beeches, lighting up evergreen banks of moss and washing the colonnades of the pines."
-L.M. Montgomery
The Blue Castle

Read more quotes by L.M. Montgomery.

Image credit:
Photograph by World of Anne Shirley.

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Created November 24, 2023. Last updated April 19, 2024.
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Five Facts About Anne of Green Gables

Here are five facts about Anne of Green Gables:

1. Anne of Green Gables is a novel written by Lucy Maud Montgomery that was first published in 1908.
   
   
2. The novel is a classic Canadian story that has been translated into many languages and is beloved worldwide.
   
   
3. The story is set in the fictional town of Avonlea on Prince Edward Island, Canada.
   
   
4. Anne of Green Gables has been adapted into films, television series, and animated series.
   
   
5. Anne of Green Gables tells the story of a young orphan girl named Anne Shirley.
   
   

Image credit:
Photograph of Megan Follows as Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables © Sullivan Entertainment

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Created November 15, 2023.
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Anne Dares (An Anne Chapter Book)

Anne Dares by Kallie George is the fifth book in the Anne Chapter Book series, which was inspired by L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables. The children's book series features charming illustrations by Abigail Halpin. Kallie George retells the story of Josie Pye challenging Anne to a dangerous dare. Geared toward early readers, the 72-page long picture book was published by Tundra Books, a division of Penguin Random House in October 2023.

Here is the description of the book from Penguin Random House:

The fifth book in an early chapter book series inspired by Anne of Green Gables, starring the spirited Anne Shirley as she agrees to a dangerous dare and learns a valuable lesson about courage.

Anne is excited to be a guest at a party at Orchard Slope, the home of her kindred spirit, Diana Barry. But when the dares start and mean Josie Pye makes the others feel bad, Anne can’t stop herself from challenging Josie to a dare . . . which leads to Anne being dared to climb the house and walk along the ridgepole! Anne’s dangerous dare ends in injury . . . and teaches her an important lesson. But Anne must pluck up her courage again when she is chosen to recite at a Christmas concert! How can Anne perform in front of so many people? And what is shy Matthew Cuthbert hiding from the family?

Lovingly adapted by Kallie George with beautiful nostalgic illustrations by Abigail Halpin, this series is perfect for fans of Anne, new and old.

ISBN-13: 9780735272101

Image credit:
Book cover of Anne Dares.

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Created October 28, 2023. Last updated November 19, 2024.
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Anne of Green Gables Paper Doll Book

Check out this wonderful Anne of Green Gables Paper Doll Book by Eileen Rudisill Miller that was published by Paper Studio Press in 2014. Miller is an illustrator and painter. You can visit her website and Etsy store to see more of her paper doll books, coloring books, and artwork.

The Anne of Green Gables Paper Doll Book includes two dressable figures: Anne Shirley and Anne's bosom friend, Diana Barry. The figures are 10 inches tall and include stands.


You can dress Anne Shirley and Diana Barry in 16 outfits from L.M. Montgomery's story, including several displayed below. The outfits include Anne and Diana's school clothes, play clothes, and dresses worn when picking flowers in Lover’s Lane. There's also Anne's first dress with puffed sleeves and the gowns Anne and Diana wore when visiting Miss Josephine Barry. Additionally, the book includes Anne and Diana's outfits for the recital at the White Sands Hotel (Anne wears the pearls Matthew gave her), their clothes worn when Anne left for Queen’s College, and dresses worn when Anne returned home to teach in Avonlea.

The Anne of Green Gables Paper Doll Book is available for purchase on Amazon.

Image Credits:
Images from the Anne of Green Gables Paper Doll Book (2014) by Eileen Rudisill Miller.

Created September 14, 2023.
© worldofanneshirley.com

Bibliophile Pencil Set Featuring Anne of Green Gables

I keep running across Anne of Green Gables-themed items in bookstores lately. They seem to be everywhere. Last night, I saw this cool bibliophile pencil set featuring literary quotes by Chronicle Books. It features the art of Jane Mount. It's a set of ten pencils with the green one featuring a quote from Anne of Green Gables: "Tomorrow is a new day, with no mistakes in it yet."

The other nine pencils feature quotes from Pride and Prejudice, Little Women, The Three Musketeers, A Tale of Two Cities, The Art of War, Moby Dick, Frankenstein, The Prophet, and The Marrow of Tradition

I'm tempted to buy a set.


Created September 7, 2023.
© worldofanneshirley.com

Lane Moore on Anne of Green Gables

This week, I finished reading a book called You Will Find Your People: How to Make Meaningful Friendships as an Adult by Lane Moore. She's a writer, musician and comedian.

Having moved this summer, and feeling lonely in general, I thought the book might be helpful to me. I’m always searching for kindred spirits and hoping for that ideal bosom friendship depicted in L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables. I think that this belief in true and lasting friendship is a common bond shared by people who love the Anne series. What I didn’t know when I started reading You Will Find Your People is that its author Lane Moore loves and identifies with Anne Shirley too and that Anne would turn up in her book.

In Chapter 2, Moore talks about Anne Shirley and Diana Barry’s friendship as being an exception to the general categories of female friendship depicted in the media. She writes:

"There are of course so many beautiful exceptions in pop culture. Particularly, Anne Shirley and Diana Barry's lifelong, deeply devoted, Platonic Soulmates friendship in Anne of Green Gables. (Though, their friendship is arguably two people who are totally in love with each other, and I will forever stand by this correct assumption, but that's for another book.) But if such a Platonic Soulmate exists, where do you find that devotion that sees you through adolescence, into adulthood, into marriages and kids and moving and new careers? Where do you find that magical, poetic friendship where you both grow on parallel tracks—even if they're not the same tracks exactly—into people who still connect deeply, not only as the people you once were, but also as the people you're constantly becoming?"

I wonder that too, where do you find that truest of friendships depicted in Anne of Green Gables? Sometimes I’ve wondered if this type of friendship really exists or if it’s simply fiction, but I still hope it’s something real and attainable.

Later on in the book, in Chapter 14, which is titled, "Friend Breakups: How to Know When to Leave, How to Do It, and How to Cope with the Grief," Lane Moore begins the chapter with a quote from L.M. Montgomery’s novel:

Even though we meet as strangers now I still love her with an inextinguishable love.
-Anne Shirley, Anne of Green Gables

Anne's statement really captures the grief when a friendship feels lost.

After finishing the book, I read a beautiful essay where Lane Moore talks about friendship and Anne of Green Gables called, "I Want a Bosom Friendship Like Anne Shirley and Diana Barry." She wrote the essay for Powell’s Books Blog on April 25, 2023. (Until just a couple months ago, I used to live a few blocks from Powell’s). Moore's essay is really lovely, and I think any fan of Anne of Green Gables should read it.

Moore writes about her lifelong goal, saying, "For me, I want a bosom friendship like Anne Shirley and Diana Barry from Anne of Green Gables more than just about anything in this world." She writes, "When I was a kid, I would read Lucy Maude Montgomery's words describing bosom friends, which boiled down this very romantic sentiment: two people who were absolutely platonic while at the same time being absolutely soulmates." She continues, saying, "I knew I wanted bosom friends. I wanted friends who I could be openly romantic with, maybe a little dramatic with, and also extremely silly with, who I could get drunk on cherry cordials with…"

I love her description of Anne and Diana’s friendship: "Their friendship was about full acceptance and full support of each other. In the face of cruel classmates, and a frustrating world, Anne had Diana's back and Diana had hers just the same."

No wonder so many of us long for a friendship like theirs.


Moore has also mentioned Anne of Green Gables in the following interviews. Check them out:

"What Attachment Styles Teach Us About Our Friendships: They’re Not Just for Romantic Relationships" by Lane Moore, Elle (June 28, 2023)

"Lane Moore: 5 Books That Make Me Feel Less Alone" by Lane Moore, Strand Book Store (October 30, 2018)

Image Credits:
Left: Photograph of Lane Moore from her website.
Right: Screen capture of Megan Follows as Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel © Sullivan Entertainment.

Created September 5, 2023.
© worldofanneshirley.com

One late April evening

"Marilla, walking home one late April evening from an Aid meeting, realized that the winter was over and gone with the thrill of delight that spring never fails to bring to the oldest and saddest as well as to the youngest and merriest."
-L.M. Montgomery
Anne of Green Gables

Read more quotes by L.M. Montgomery.

Image credit:
Photograph by World of Anne Shirley.

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Created April 20, 2023. Last updated April 19, 2024.
© worldofanneshirley.com