"Anne of Green Gables"

The real thing.  Having watched "Anne with an E" -- and having thoroughly enjoyed it, I had to go back to the books, which I somehow never read in school.  Which is weird, because I basically read everything.  So, here's my take:  The books are good.  In a literary way, in a real teen way.  There are whole sections describing Avonlea which are like pure poetry.  The seasons, the trees, the countryside.  As a young reader I wouldn't have appreciated all of this description as much as I do now.  And there are Anne's monologues -- her never-ending stories of events in her life and thoughts she has and feelings she expresses.  These are irritating, both in the book and in the streaming series.  But they are real and they do show the unique passion, the "verve", which makes her truly special.  Characters in the streaming series are combined and threads which are subtle in the book become more dominant in the televised series (this being the 21st century and the books having been written in the 19th century).  Most events are about the same with the exception of a couple of things which happen to her friends and schoolmates.  Why didn't I read these books when I was younger?  As a city girl, I didn't see myself in the setting of the idyllic countryside.  Which the story is, to a point.  My fear, that this book was a sanitized goody-two shoes kind of tale, is a little justified.  Anne is well-liked at school, a good student, a girl who is teased at first but in the book that all goes away within the first six months or so.  "Anne with an E" is better at making the story real -- of Anne making friends but sometimes losing them, of Anne continuing to be on the outside, of her pushing too hard and the people in her life calling her out on it.  In any case I would say that the characters of the streaming series are performed with a true respect for the written characters.  One thing I would have liked about Anne had I read the books when I was young?  Her spunk.  One thing I like now?  Her introspection.  She makes mistakes, a lot of them.  But here's the thing -- she says it herself -- she never makes the same mistake twice because she learns from every event.  And that's something you can hang your hat on.  Even a straw hat with flowers.