A Good Book and a Hot Cup of Tea
A little while ago Snaz and I were at my parents’ house for the weekend. We had taken Anne of Gables on dvd with us to watch while we were there. I hadn’t seen it since I was a young and impressionable teenager. As the first line was spoken Snaz and I both burst into tears and continued to cry through the entire film. I think we provided as much entertainment for my parents as the film did.
I can’t remember how old I was when I first saw the film but I do remember quite vividly that it was the first time I fell in love. I fell heart achingly, head over heels in love with Gilbert.
Watching the film again made me think that I had probably also had a bit of a girl crush on Anne. She was strong, and intelligent, and always followed her instincts no matter how hard it was. Often, it meant making decisions that were neither comfortable nor easy.
Over at Read Alert there has been an ongoing discussion about strong female characters in children’s books. It’s easy to forget how much children learn about life from the books they read. For young girls, reading about strong and independent heroines is immensely important. They can provide inspiration, but also refuge and solace. Recently, while reading Little Women with Jelly, Snaz, Lili, and Munkey, I realized that I wasn’t the only one who had felt this way.
These days, when I go to bed, I generally take with me whatever book I’m in the middle of reading for my thesis. Recently it was a book about WW1. After I dreamt I was drinking tea from fine bone china with Field Marshal Haig in the middle of a field full of dead soldiers, I thought I should probably change my night time reading habits. So I started reading The Story Girl by L. M. Montgomery again.
The Story Girl is another example of an incredibly strong heroine who defies convention and continually expresses herself with honesty and confidence, and, like Anne, courageously weathers the criticism and misunderstanding of those less inclined to stand apart from the crowd.
In all my reading and research over the past few years I’d forgotten how insightful and uplifting books for children and young adults can be. It’s far too easy to become attached to one’s own cynicism and forget what it was like to just delight in beautiful prose, warm hearted story telling, and the thrill of falling in love.
I can’t remember how old I was when I first saw the film but I do remember quite vividly that it was the first time I fell in love. I fell heart achingly, head over heels in love with Gilbert.
Watching the film again made me think that I had probably also had a bit of a girl crush on Anne. She was strong, and intelligent, and always followed her instincts no matter how hard it was. Often, it meant making decisions that were neither comfortable nor easy.
Over at Read Alert there has been an ongoing discussion about strong female characters in children’s books. It’s easy to forget how much children learn about life from the books they read. For young girls, reading about strong and independent heroines is immensely important. They can provide inspiration, but also refuge and solace. Recently, while reading Little Women with Jelly, Snaz, Lili, and Munkey, I realized that I wasn’t the only one who had felt this way.
These days, when I go to bed, I generally take with me whatever book I’m in the middle of reading for my thesis. Recently it was a book about WW1. After I dreamt I was drinking tea from fine bone china with Field Marshal Haig in the middle of a field full of dead soldiers, I thought I should probably change my night time reading habits. So I started reading The Story Girl by L. M. Montgomery again.
The Story Girl is another example of an incredibly strong heroine who defies convention and continually expresses herself with honesty and confidence, and, like Anne, courageously weathers the criticism and misunderstanding of those less inclined to stand apart from the crowd.
In all my reading and research over the past few years I’d forgotten how insightful and uplifting books for children and young adults can be. It’s far too easy to become attached to one’s own cynicism and forget what it was like to just delight in beautiful prose, warm hearted story telling, and the thrill of falling in love.
posted by canoe at 12:42 PM
4 Comments:
hurrah! books for young people rule!
my life is not wasted!
gilbert was a ponce, though.
*ducks*
i mean it, he goes in the same bucket as Ashley from Gone With the Wind and Orlando Bloom and Hugh Grant. Wet, wet, wet.
P.O.N.C.E.
he's such a PUSHOVER. he's nice in the very beginning, when he's pulling her hair and teasing her. Then this happens:
"Things can't go on like this any longer. Anne, I love you. You know I do. I -- can't tell you how much. Will you promise me that some day you'll be my wife?"
and he's just never the same again. all the spark goes out of him and he's just all "ooh, Queen Anne, queen of my heart and life and home".
i'm sorry. i used to be a gilbert fan, too. but now it's just gone. i still have a very soft spot for the anne books (and have just dragged out a couple of volumes to find the aforementioned "evidence"), even though there are a few too many fervent references to the Bible. But gilbert has forever flown from the cage of my heart. (as anne might say)
the story girl, on the other hand, ROCKS.
Lili, your comparison of Gilbert to those two complete drips is unforgivable. Besides, the only reason he's never the same after Anne goes away if because he gets SCARLET FEVER. It did serious damage to his health. You can't expect the boy to go around pulling hair after being bed ridden for so long.
Snaz, I join you in biting my thumb at her.
Whoah, how did I miss this?! Damn homework.
I'm with the others, Lili: he may turn soppy, but a little hair-pulling goes a long way.
*fans self*
I'd also like to take umbrage at you calling Hugh Grant wet. Although he plays wet in Notting Hill and Four Weddings, his *real* appeal, as far as I'm concerned, is in his real-life bad boy persona, which has emerged in his later films such as About a Boy, Love Actual (bleh) and Bridget Jones. It also emerged from Divine Brown's mouth all the way back in 1995 or therabouts. Rawr.
What a great post, Canoodle. For me, it was Jane Eyre. My first copy of the book has highlighter pen and underlines scribbled all over the Girl Power bits which 15 year old Jelly found particularly exciting. 'I don't think, sir, you have the right to command me, merely because you are older than I...' AWESOME!
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