Do we want another prequel?

When I first saw there was going to be a prequel to Anne of Green Gables, I thought, why God, why? I mean do we need a prequel? We had a sequel to Gone with the Wind and we also had a spin-off book entitled Rhett Butler’s People. Plus there are slew of sequels to Jane Austen's novels. I won’t lie, curiosity got the better of me and I decided to loan this one from the library.

The story starts off with Anne’s parents and who they were. Both, we find out, were school teachers. They die very early in Anne’s life (she was a few months old) and she is taken in by a friend of Anne’s mother. She has the best of intentions, but as time goes on, her husband continues to drink, and she has more children. The friend starts to become cruel and resents Anne. There is a death and Anne is shipped off to another family with three sets of twins. We gain a little insight into her life there, and another death occurs and she is off to the orphanage.

To be honest, I thought that there would be more information about the orphanage, but really I think there were only 50 pages of it. The majority of the novel is Anne living with her first family. And no matter where she goes she is nothing more than slave labor.

If nothing else, this book reminded me how grateful I am that my ancestors fought for the rights I now have. Throughout the entire novel women were nothing more than broodmares. They hated, or strongly resented, their children and were tired and cranky. No one seemed happy.

The story was good. I enjoyed it. Now, did this story need to be told? Nah. I think the world could have gone without a prequel to Anne of Green Gables. But this is coming from someone who has never read the series(tried numerous times, but could never finish). Although I will say that I am now interested in the books and may try to read them over the summer.

For people interested in this novel, I say give it a go. It was well written.