I am a huge reader. I read all the time, and have since I was 4 or 5 years old. My favorite category of literature has always been children's books. I have decided to share my reviews of the books that had profound effects on my soul.
I will begin with Anne of Green Gables.
Looking back, Anne was probably my first encounter with an abstract child in a book. Laura Ingalls wasn't, she was my first heroine love. But from the first moment Anne was asked to come inside to wait, and she said that there was more "scope for the imagination outside", I knew that I had found someone I wanted to know. And then when, shortly thereafter, she says to Matthew: "I'm very glad to see you. I was beginning to be afraid you weren't coming for me and I was imagining all the things that might have happened to prevent you. I had made up my mind that if you didn't come for me to-night I'd go down the track to that big wild cherry-tree at the bend, and climb up into it to stay all night. I wouldn't be a bit afraid, and it would be lovely to sleep in a wild cherry-tree all white with bloom in the moonshine, don't you think? You could imagine you were dwelling in marble halls, couldn't you? And I was quite sure you would come for me in the morning, if you didn't to-night.", I knew that I was in love.
Anne Shirley remains one of my favorite characters of all time. She was so full of everything that I love in a person. She had a flair for the dramatic, a never-ending enthusiasm for life, a creative imagination that was always working overtime, and a belief that the world and everything in it was basically good.
On her drive home with Matthew, her adoptive father, she says: ""Why, a bride, of course--a bride all in white with a lovely misty veil. I've never seen one, but I can imagine what she would look like. I don't ever expect to be a bride myself. I'm so homely nobody will ever want to marry me-- unless it might be a foreign missionary. I suppose a foreign missionary mightn't be very particular. But I do hope that some day I shall have a white dress. That is my highest ideal of earthly bliss. I just love pretty clothes. And I've never had a pretty dress in my life that I can remember--but of course it's all the more to look forward to, isn't it? And then I can imagine that I'm dressed gorgeously. This morning when I left the asylum I felt so ashamed because I had to wear this horrid old wincey dress. All the orphans had to wear them, you know. A merchant in Hopeton last winter donated three hundred yards of wincey to the asylum. Some people said it was because he couldn't sell it, but I'd rather believe that it was out of the kindness of his heart, wouldn't you? When we got on the train I felt as if everybody must be looking at me and pitying me. But I just went to work and imagined that I had on the most beautiful pale blue silk dress--because when you ARE imagining you might as well imagine something worth while--and a big hat all flowers and nodding plumes, and a gold watch, and kid gloves and boots. I felt cheered up right away and I enjoyed my trip to the Island with all my might. I wasn't a bit sick coming over in the boat. Neither was Mrs. Spencer although she generally is. She said she hadn't time to get sick, watching to see that I didn't fall overboard. She said she never saw the beat of me for prowling about. But if it kept her from being seasick it's a mercy I did prowl, isn't it? And I wanted to see everything that was to be seen on that boat, because I didn't know whether I'd ever have another opportunity. Oh, there are a lot more cherry-trees all in bloom! This Island is the bloomiest place. I just love it already, and I'm so glad I'm going to live here. I've always heard that Prince Edward Island was the prettiest place in the world, and I used to imagine I was living here, but I never really expected I would. It's delightful when your imaginations come true, isn't it? But those red roads are so funny. When we got into the train at Charlottetown and the red roads began to flash past I asked Mrs. Spencer what made them red and she said she didn't know and for pity's sake not to ask her any more questions. She said I must have asked her a thousand already. I suppose I had, too, but how you going to find out about things if you don't ask questions? And what DOES make the roads red?"
Can't you just hear her freshly scrubbed eyes??
Anne called Diana Barry, her best friend, a kindred spirit. It always made me sad, because for some reason I always felt like Diana was NOT a kindred spirit for Anne. Diana was a sweet girl, but so simple. Everytime she shook her head desparingly and said "Oh Anne....", I knew that she was wrong for Anne. I knew that I was the kindred spirit that Anne was looking for. I knew that I understood and loved Anne much more than Diana ever could.
But Anne didn't mind being misunderstood. She spent the entire series of books being misunderstood. I remember reading the books over and over, hoping that Anne could somehow feel my understanding of her through the pages...
Imagine my joy when as a young adult I found out that there actually was a Prince Edward Island, and a Green Gables! It was only a little more exciting than when the television movie version came out (Things That Make Me Cry, Part 2). My own kindred spirit , who shares my love of Anne Shirley, and I have vowed to take our daughters to Prince Edward Island together one day. Tissues aplenty will be used on that trip.
I would have loved to have Anne Shirley as a friend. But I never met an Anne Shirley...
Until I met Eric Mosley (Eric with a "c"), and as it turned out, I married Anne of Green Gables, and then shortly thereafter gave birth to another Anne. My life is now full of Anne.
So take that, Diana Barry. I've got two Anne's, and I even get to sleep with one of them....
Welcome to Being Suzanne Mosley
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