Anne #7 - Rainbow Valley (original 1919; edition 2006)

Digital audiobook read by Pam Ward.

Book seven in the classic series about Anne Shirley and her family. Anne’s six children have discovered their own “magical” place where they can play and indulge their imaginations. When a new family moves into an old mansion nearby, they welcome the Meredith kids into their hideaway. And the children are intent on several projects.

These books are just delightful reads. A nice gentle escape from today’s harsher realities. Yes, there are missteps and some tragic occurrences – life is like that. But on the whole, they are full of charming characters, believably innocent fun, and a few humorous miscalculations. The children learn that actions and words have consequences. Anne has grown into a wonderful mother, caring and supportive, guiding her brood towards adulthood. ( )

Montgomery writes children well, and in the mischievous Merediths, she finds kindred spirits. Their misadventures are entertaining, though Mary Vance is, as Susan would say, a cat of another color. ( )

I remember reading Rainbow Valley when I was a kid and enjoying it, but not loving it. I still have that same issue today.

This is technically the 7th book in the Anne of Green Gables series. However, it was the fifth book published. L.M. Montgomery went back later and wrote Anne of Windy Poplars and Anne of Ingleside. I think that is why I often felt as if Anne of Ingleside was more dark than the earlier books in the series.

This novel though it proclaims it is an Anne of Green Gable book really has very little Anne or Gilbert. We now have Anne a mother of six children (3 boys and 3 girls) and still quite in love with Gilbert. However, most of the text follows the Ingleside's new neighbors, the Meredith family.

The father is a minister who is still reeling from the loss of his wife and is doing his very best to raise his children in less than ideal conditions. We quickly see that each of the Meredith children (Jerry, Faith, Una, and Carl) have found themselves to be awe struck by the Ingleside children and one can imagine them as teenagers.

The main reason why I marked this down two stars was the following:

One, I really don't recall dislike Susan (Ingleside housekeeper) this much as a child, but I really found that she rubbed me the wrong way in this book. Perhaps if I had not read "Rilla of Ingleside" and "The Blythes Are Quoted" after this novel I maybe would not have had the urge to shake the character. We do find out that she has maternal feelings to the youngest Blythe son (Shirley) due to her nursing him since Anne was ill for several months after his birth. That is all well and good. However, you definitely see that he is her favorite and she dislikes anything that Anne or Gilbert do to discipline him though she doesn't care about what they do with the other children. That and her constant warbling about Walter (second oldest Blythe son) writing poems and her implying that he was not really a "man" was just awful. I am sure that was the prevailing attitude back then, but it did not make it any easier to read.

Second, I have read I believe the majority of the short stories that L.M. Montgomery published. In many of them she has a number of themes she often returns to in these stories. The main storyline between John Meredith and Rosemary West was just that same storyline repeated in a longer novel. She often wrote short stories about one sister promising never to marry and the other sister holding her to it. I had forgotten that particular storyline until I re-read this the other day and I was dissatisfied by it since as I said I felt like I read the same story by L.M. Montgomery numerous times.

All in all a good read for those that want to catch up (as much as they can) with Gilbert, Anne, and their children. Also it is the last "cheerful" book in the series since Rilla of Ingleside was much darker in tone and subject manner. ( )

I liked this a lot more than I thought I would. It focused on the manse children, but I loved the insights into the characters that the book gave. I was laughing at their antics and wincing whenever they got into trouble. ( )

4.0 stars ( )