If you’re like me, you probably are a longtime fan of L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables. Maybe you’re hoping for a book that has a similar feel, but you’re not sure where to look. In this post, I’m going to be sharing a few fun vintage titles that I hope will be new to you!

– If you love the strong friendship and mischievous adventures that Anne and Diana have, try Katie John by Mary Calhoun.

– If you’re a fan of the stunning imagery and nature descriptions throughout Anne, try Maggie Rose: Her Birthday Christmas by Ruth Sawyer. (Hard to find but if you can, it’s fabulous!)

– If you’re looking for another story set in Canada and written in the 20th century, try One to Grow On by Jean Little.

– If you’re in the mood for a coming-of-age story about a young woman from a small town, try Emily of Deep Valley by Maud Hart Lovelace.

– If you’re on the hunt for another episodic book where each chapter is its own mini story, try The Saturdays or The Four-Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright.

– If your favorite aspect of AOGG was the Anne and Gilbert subplot, try Pat of Silver Bush, one of Montgomery’s lesser-known books that features a Gilbert-like hero (Jingle)!

– If you’d like to read another heartwarming story about an orphan finding a wonderful new home, try Runaway Alice by Frances Salomon Murphy.

– If you want another lengthy girls’ classic that isn’t as well-known as Anne, try What Katy Did at School by Susan Coolidge.

What books would you recommend to Anne fans? Leave a comment below!

I have often thought it interesting that my two favorite authors, L.M. Montgomery and Noel Streatfeild, should have such different writing styles. I wrote to friends in a reading group: “My two favorite authors are stylistically dissimilar…I’ve read 20+ books by each of them and one author is very flowery, elegant, and artistic [Montgomery], while the other is matter-of-fact and concise [Streatfeild].”

I was so focused on the differences between these authors that I was surprised to find a possible connection between their books. It happened while I was recently rereading Montgomery’s Pat of Silver Bush (1933). One of my favorite scenes is when Jingle’s mother, Doreen Garrison, comes for a visit, and Pat is an onlooker to the uncomfortable reunion. For the first time, I realized that this scene was reminding me of another fascinating scene: the moment when Noel Streatfeild’s heroine Gemma Bow in Gemma Alone (1969) sees her mother Rowena Alston again after a gap of several years.

The two passages, while markedly different in style, share definite similarities:

Pat saw her more clearly than Jingle did. Tall, slender, graceful as a flower, in a soft fluttering chiffon dress like blue mist; pale, silvery-golden hair sleeked down all over her head like a cap under a little tilted hat of smooth blue feathers: bluish-green eyes that never seemed to see you, even when they looked at you, under eyebrows as thin as a line drawn in soot; a mouth that spoiled everything, so vividly red and arched was it. She might have stepped off a magazine cover. Beautiful…oh, yes, very beautiful! But not…somehow…like a mother!

“I like a mother who looks like a mother,” was the thought that whisked through Pat’s head. This woman looked…at first…like a girl.[1]

Whereas in Gemma Alone:

For one thing, Rowena’s appearance had hardly changed. Her hair was rather a brighter gold, and she wore artificial eyelashes all the time instead of only when working, which she had not done before she went to Hollywood. Surprisingly she looked, Gemma thought, younger than when she had last seen her. Perhaps it was the clothes, which were short-skirted and little-girlish that year, but certainly she looked less like somebody’s mother even than she had done before.[2]

In these descriptions, we get not only the same general feel, but we end up with readily identifiable connections between Montgomery’s Doreen and Streatfeild’s Rowena. Both are self-focused, feel awkward around their children (whom they have not seen for prolonged absences); both have “gold” hair, are viewed as girlish instead of motherly…

Do we have any basis for the supposition that Streatfeild was inspired by Montgomery? Aside from the parallels in these scenes, we do know that Streatfeild sought other works for inspiration in her own writings—in fact, her novel The Painted Garden (1949) is a remarkable retelling of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden (1911).

Certainly it would seem that Streatfeild tended to read fellow British authors: Arthur Ransome is mentioned in her 1944 work Curtain Up (also titled in the U.S. as Theater Shoes); Burnett was clearly an influence; a Beatrix Potter story is referenced in Ballet Shoes (1936). I also believe that Streatfeild was influenced by popular author Enid Blyton (1897-1968), and she was very firmly a fan of Victorian author E. Nesbit, of whom she wrote a biography in 1958. Curtain Up contains a description of a bookshelf that includes Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield as well as works of Shakespeare. But in this section we also find a reference to an American story: Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women.

We also know that Streatfeild read the novels of American author Elizabeth Enright, since her 1966 work The Growing Summer is dedicated to her, “because I so greatly admire her books.”[3] Not only did Streatfeild admire Enright, but my surmise is that she attempted to imitate her: The Growing Summer (published in the U.S in 1967 as The Magic Summer) is a foray into a more environmental, descriptive style than was Streatfeild’s norm. Her earlier novels tend to focus heavily on dialogue or long paragraphs detailing summaries of her characters’ activities. The Growing Summer is much more firmly in the Enright style of writing, in which the characters’ adventures are shown rather than told, and in which the setting plays a vigorous role rather than being relegated to a couple of brief sketches.

Needless to say, it isn’t as far-fetched as I originally thought to consider that Streatfeild might have read a popular Canadian author of her era, and possibly stored away an idea here or there for future books. The Gemma series was published in 1968-69, thirty-five years after Pat of Silver Bush—so even if it was inspired by a scene in the book, Streatfeild’s emulation of it may have been unconscious rather than a deliberate artistic choice. However, Streatfeild did have a robust library of personal books (her flat had “one wall [that] was almost covered with a floor-to-ceiling bookcase”[4]), and perhaps Montgomery’s works were among the works she revisited more than once.

As I neared the end of Pat of Silver Bush, I came across another line that struck me:

“There’s that unfinished house, Hilary…it always makes my heart ache.”[5]

I had just reread The Unfinished House (1938), the eleventh volume in the Judy Bolton mystery series written by Margaret Sutton. Unfinished houses are not only in Pat, either—it’s a bit of a motif in Montgomery’s writings, appearing in the Emily series (1923-27) in a much more major role (“the Disappointed House”):

Off to the right, on the crest of a steep little hill, covered with young birches and firs, was a house that puzzled and intrigued Emily. It was grey and weather-worn, but it didn’t look old. It had never been finished; the roof was shingled but the sides were not, and the windows were boarded over. Why had it never been finished?[6]

I have wondered before if Sutton was influenced by L.M. Montgomery. While it’s true that Sutton wrote fast-paced mysteries—a far cry from Montgomery’s slow, romantic novels at first glance—the mirroring elements in these books are worth noting. I feel that some of the less formulaic aspects of the Judy Bolton mysteries have a Montgomery-esque tinge: early in the series, Judy wavers between marrying longtime chum Peter Dobbs or wealthy architect Arthur Farringdon-Pett: a delightful trope which is reminiscent of love triangles found in Montgomery’s Anne and Emily books. It’s this kind of element that sets it apart from other girls’ mystery books of the era: Nancy Drew, for example, is a perennial 18-year-old within a limited sphere, while Judy is free to graduate high school, go to business college, get a job, marry, start a home of her own, etc… Also, characters in early Judy books often return in later volumes, another note of realism that makes it more unique than standard mysteries of its time—and I think this is because Sutton approached her novels with a background of reading older series books, and she brought what she had learned from those.

Consider this paragraph from the twenty-first book in the Judy Bolton series, The Clue of the Stone Lantern (1951):

The lawn sloped gently toward a grove of gnarled old trees that now cast weird shadows in the moonlight. At the foot of the slope was a crystal lake where moonbeams shimmered and danced like ghosts across the water.[7]

To me, this is very much a Montgomery kind of paragraph: strong on poetic imagery, creating plenty of atmosphere with deftly-chosen words. In a similar vein, Sutton’s book The Haunted Fountain was retitled; I believe I read that she had wanted to call it The Enchanted Fountain (which fits the story much better), but her publisher requested a more standard mystery title. But doesn’t The Enchanted Fountain sound just like something Montgomery might have invented?

Do we have any firm evidence that Sutton read Montgomery? Actually…I think we do! When Margaret Sutton was interviewed at the University of Wisconsin in 1984, long after the Judy Bolton series was cancelled, she told the interviewer that she had wanted to write a book in which Judy became a mother—“but the publishers wouldn’t let her,” she explained. When the interviewer pointed out that “other series characters had children,” Sutton responded: “Oh, yes, Pollyanna has children, and Anne of Green Gables has children. Ruth Fielding had children.”[8] This is practically confirmation that Sutton at least read the Anne series, and might have read the Pat books as well. (Pat of Silver Bush was released just one year after the first four books in the Judy Bolton series hit shelves.) When it came time to write the eleventh Judy book, is there a possibility that Sutton recalled the memorable phrase ‘unfinished house’ and it sparked her imagination?

Either way, I like to contemplate the idea that L.M. Montgomery might have influenced two other favorite authors of mine, just as she was inspired by Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (which is among my top 5 favorite novels). This is an endless circle of inspiration and influence, one that I hope to continue with my own writing!

[1] L.M. Montgomery, Pat of Silver Bush (1933), pg. 231

[2] Noel Streatfeild, Gemma Alone (1969), pg. 61

[3] Noel Streatfeild, The Magic Summer (1967), dedication page

[4] Noel Streatfeild, Ballet Shoes for Anna (1972), postscript by William Streatfeild (1998), pg. 251

[5] L.M. Montgomery, Pat of Silver Bush (1933), pg. 316

[6] L.M. Montgomery, Emily of New Moon (1923), pg. 65

[7] Margaret Sutton, The Clue of the Stone Lantern (1950), pg. 3

[8] Q&A with Margaret Sutton, JudyBolton.com [http://www.judybolton.com/jbwisc.html]

I read some lovely books this month! I totaled nine books read in May (seven new books and two rereads). One of my favorites from this month was Whose Waves These Are by Amanda Dykes, which just released at the end of April. I found it incredibly hard to put the book down; it was set in Maine (one of my favorite literary locales!), and the story was spellbinding with a beautifully uplifting message and memorable characters. Another favorite was When Patty Went to College by Jean Webster, first published in 1901. This author is better-known for one of her later books, Daddy-Long-Legs, but I found this book even more humorous and entertaining. It’s more like a string of short stories than a novel, and while this format can be dull in some volumes, this one kept up a good pace.

L.M. Montgomery’s The Golden Road was another delightful book from May, full of the delicious descriptions and characterizations that I love about Montgomery’s novels. While the first half of this one is funny and episodic, the second half is heartwarming and compelling. Another book I enjoyed immensely was Hattie Ever After by Kirby Larson, which is set in 1919 San Francisco and features a 17-year-old girl who longs to be a reporter. I also re-read The Midnight Visitor by Margaret Sutton, one of my favorite Judy Bolton mysteries, and Katie John by Mary Calhoun, a favorite from age 10 or so that I still love reading. I also read some fun vintage mysteries!

I’ve started another reread of Jane of Lantern Hill, my all-time favorite novel. It’s always a treat to slip back into this wonderful world, and summer seems like the perfect time to revisit Jane and her father and their marvelous summer home on Prince Edward Island. Last December I reread Anne of Windy Poplars and was struck by the similarities of one of its subplots to the incidents of Jane. The subplot of Little Elizabeth seemed remarkably akin to Jane’s story, and since Windy Poplars was published in 1936, just year prior to Jane, I wondered if L.M. Montgomery was inspired to expand it into a full-length novel. Then I read one of Montgomery’s short stories from 1934, entitled Tomorrow Comes, and realized that it is actually the original story—Windy Poplars and Jane are both derivative versions! In fact, verbatim passages from both books appear in the original short story. All three tales are simply enchanting, so if you haven’t read them yet, do so right away! (But Jane is the best, so if you’re only going to read one, choose this one!)

This month I finished writing two major projects from this spring, a novella called The Joy Cottage and the third novel in my historical series, Every Beautiful Gift. Having finished these two, I’m hoping to work on some short stories—I have so many ideas floating through my head, I can’t wait to explore some of them!

I just finished the first draft of my latest #workinprogress! It’s a romance comedy/drama novella set at a lake cottage in 1946, and it’s been an absolute breeze to write ❤️📖😍 pic.twitter.com/uaKHvyTddL

— Anna Rose Johnson (@GymnasticsRosie) May 15, 2019

The garden is so beautiful right now! Everything is just beginning—all the young blooms are here or getting ready to arrive. I am so excited about my creamy-white marigolds, and they are going to be *so many* strawberries soon! The forget-me-nots are always a lovely treat as well this time of year. I’m especially pleased that my blue-grape hyacinths have come up for the second year in a row—I initially planted the bulbs in the fall of 2017. (As you might recall, these flowers appear the Pat books by L.M. Montgomery; they grow at Silver Bush!)

But at last they were throwing open the windows to let in the spring and Pat learned all over again how lovely young cherry trees were, waving whitely in green twilights, and the scent of apple blossoms in moonlight, and the colonies of blue grape-hyacinths under the dining-room windows. – Mistress Pat

After promising to do so in my last blog post, it is finally time to post my brief analysis on the Pat Gardiner series by L.M. Montgomery! I’m excited to share my thoughts on these wonderful books. 🙂 (A warning: This post will include a few spoilers, so if you have not yet read these books, be aware!)

Originally published in 1933 and 1935, respectively, Pat of Silver Bush and Mistress Pat comprise a two-book series that revolves around a girl growing up on a beautiful farm on Prince Edward Island, surrounded by her beloved family and friends. The first volume chronicles Pat’s childhood and teenage years with plenty of humor and sweetness, while the sequel follows the heroine into adulthood—from hosting special dinners to marriage proposals and further changes in her life.

“I really put more of myself into Pat than into any of my other heroines,” Montgomery once wrote.[1]  I feel like Pat is one of her most realistic heroines, much less dreamy than Anne Shirley but not quite as capable as Jane Stuart. Montgomery also considered Pat to be “like Anne,” an observation I find interesting, since the two characters are quite different, in my opinion![2]

Shortly after its publication, The Los Angeles Times called Pat of Silver Bush a “sweet, sentimental story of young girlhood on a wooded estate on Prince Edward Island…those who followed the fortunes of Anne of Green Gables will revel in this.”[3]

This series contains some of Montgomery’s finest characterizations: stubborn, warmhearted Pat; endearing, artistic Jingle; whimsical yet prosaic Judy. And one of her most convincing “villains” appears in the pages of Silver Bush, in the form of Jingle’s mother—the cold, self-absorbed Doreen Garrison. Also interesting: while most of Montgomery’s heroines are orphans and only children, Pat possesses not only both parents, but several siblings as well—which provides another avenue of storylines for the series.

These books focus on the simplest joys of life, while celebrating family and strong ties to home. Pat may not have many “adventures”—she doesn’t go off to Redmond like Anne and she doesn’t climb the Alpine Path with Emily, but the books don’t require such adventures to create compelling plotlines and poignant moments.

Pat’s fierce loyalty to her home is intensely relatable, as is her reluctance to change and her sorrow over the small, but necessary, transitions of life. Who can’t sympathize with the mingled pain and regret when a tree is chopped down or a bedroom re-papered? But Pat’s love of the nature and beauty around her helps overcome many of her trivial concerns. “Who among us will not experience a homesick thrill in reading of the Secret Field and the old orchard?” the Honolulu Star-Bulletin wrote of the first Pat book in 1933. “Was not there always something like that in our childhood days?”[4]

One interesting facet about this series is that unlike some of Montgomery’s old-fashioned heroines, Pat’s story is set largely in the 1920s! Automobiles, telephones, and bobbed hair all play a role in the series—a significant departure from the days of Anne Shirley! For those curious about such small details—like I am!—Pat was born in 1913. “I was five when the armistice was signed,” Pat recounts in Pat of Silver Bush.[5] Working from other dates provided throughout the series, the ending of Mistress Pat technically takes place in 1944, but as it was published nine years prior to that date, obviously Montgomery couldn’t have foreseen that Silver Bush—and the rest of the world!—would have been engulfed in World War II by the end of the story. (I’m glad Jingle didn’t have to go to war!! Though the war would have given Judy and Pat endless material for kitchen confabs.)

Another element I love about this book is that Silver Bush is actually a real place. Montgomery modeled the Gardiner house after the home of her aunt and uncle, which she often visited as a child. Amusingly, the pond she called “The Lake of Shining Waters” was actually on the Silver Bush property—not at Green Gables! Silver Bush “was extremely important to Lucy Maud Montgomery as she had many happy visits here…the home was the inspiration of many of her writings.”[6] One of Montgomery’s biographers wrote that Silver Bush was “the happiest home away from home that Maud ever knew.”[7]

The books can be long in spots—excessive chunks of dialogue, stories, and descriptions that were some of Montgomery’s favorite aspects of writing—but the memorable characters, gorgeous imagery, and charming storylines outweigh these sections. And I would have loved the ending of Mistress Pat even more if she had chosen to marry Jingle before Silver Bush burned in the fire. Then it would have been a courageous decision born of love and steadfastness instead of resignation. (And if Montgomery could have found a way for Pat and Jingle to live at Silver Bush forever—and for Jingle’s mother to return and reconcile with him—I would have been over the moon!)

Those aspects aside, these are among my very favorite Montgomery novels, and I recommend them to anyone who loves stories focused on home and family. 🙂

Happy Reading!

(The header photo is a sketch I drew of Pat and the Silver Bush house. 🙂)

[1] Lucy Maud Montgomery: A Writer’s Life by Elizabeth McLeod (2001), pg. 27

[2] Lucy Maud Montgomery (The Canadians) by Mollie Gillen (1999), pg. 56

[3] “Sweet Sentiment Here,” The Los Angeles Times, September 24, 1933, pg. 29

[4] “Life of a Girl on Prince Edward Isle,” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, September 2, 1933, pg. 30

[5] Pat of Silver Bush by L.M. Montgomery (1933), pg. 197

[6] “Silver Bush Campbell Farm House,” Canada’s Historic Places, accessed November 9, 2018

[7] Maud: The Life of L.M. Montgomery by Harry Bruce (1992), pg. 26

November is here, in all of its drizzly, cloudy glory. I have bulbs to plant soon—beautiful multicolored tulips that will (hopefully) sprout up the in the warm spring months ahead. In book-writing news, I’m currently drafting the second book in my “Norvia” middle grade series, thanks to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I originally drafted the first Norvia book for NaNo in November 2014, so working on the sequel feels like a wonderful flashback for me.

Some of my research for the sequel:

I’m also still working on my Christmas novella, which I hope to share with you all in mid-December—very exciting! 🙂 Stay tuned for more details!

For me, the last two weeks have been all about the 2018 World Gymnastics Championships. I provided tons of fun coverage for Inside Gymnastics Magazine, including an interview with Great Britain’s Becky Downie. It was so exciting to watch all of these incredible athletes at the highest level of the sport. My all-time favorite routine of Worlds? Probably Nina Derwael’s breathtaking, gold medal-winning uneven bars routine. Derwael, whom I interviewed about a year ago, is currently Belgium’s top gymnast and the world’s best bars worker. I can’t wait to watch her compete in 2019!

In reading news, I hit my 2018 Goodreads Challenge last week! I’ve read 100 books so far this year, and I’m hoping to read several more before the year is out. I recently reread some of the books in the Patty Fairfield series by Carolyn Wells (published from 1902-1919), and that was simply delightful. They’re such light, humorous reads!

I was recently given these three gorgeous vintage copies:

Interestingly, all three volumes were previously owned by the same young lady, whose name was written in beautiful cursive in the front of each book. Being a genealogist (and insatiably curious!), I did a little searching on family history sites and uncovered some fascinating info about this fellow booklover, whose life seemed to mirror Patty’s remarkably! Not only was she also an only child and a fashionable debutante in a bustling city, but she looked almost exactly like the illustrations of Patty on these covers! 🙂 I wonder if someone gave her these books because of her amazing similarity to Patty. In any event, I love knowing a bit more about the former owner of my books!

I just finished reading The Mystery on Judy Lane, the brand-new book in the Judy Bolton series. The author, Beverly Hatfield, has gifted Judy fans with a wonderful companion volume to this awesome series. I loved reading this sweet Christmassy mystery, set between books #13 and #14.

I also recently found these vintage copies of two other books in the Judy series. The Mark on the Mirror is one of my very favorites!

Now I’m rereading Emily Climbs by L.M. Montgomery, and even though I’ve read it before, I’m having a hard time putting it down! 🙂 Also—stay tuned for my upcoming blog post on the Pat of Silver Bush series, which I consider to be perhaps Montgomery’s sweetest and coziest series of books.

Happy Reading!