Series: Anne of Green Gables #7
Genre: Historical Fiction, Classics
Publication date: 1919
Book Description: Anne Shirley is grown up, has married her beloved Gilbert, and is the mother of six mischievous children. These boys and girls discover a special place all their own, but they never dream of what will happen when a strange family moves into an old mansion nearby. The Meredith clan is two boys and two girls—and a runaway named Mary Vance. Soon the Merediths join Anne's children in their private hideout, intent on carrying out their plans to save Mary from the orphanage, to help the lonely minister find happiness, and to keep a pet rooster from the soup pot. There's always an adventure brewing in the sun-dappled world of Rainbow Valley.
Thoughts:
We continue to follow Anne's children. They are imaginative and adventurous, but the spark of interest in them is not as strong as when we followed Anne in her childhood. I am warming up to the children, I find their stories enjoyable as I read, but as soon as the page is done the whole thing slips from my mind. So not too memorable.
The majority of the book is focused on another group of children, kids around Anne's kids' age. The main characters are a wholesome, pious group of hugely neglected children who adore their useless father; he happens to be the minister of their Church therefore everyone in town is highly invested in his family life. In the time when it was written, religion was a mandatory aspect of society but this feels so forced. The man becomes a widow and he has six children of various ages but not old enough to actually take care of the younger ones. Everyone in the community takes it upon themselves to critique the children's every action as proof that the minister can't control them and compares it to some made-up sin in their books. Every sin they commit or moment of disobedience can be traced back to a gosh-darn honest mistake on the part of the observer. Yet it happens time and time again.
I mean I assume this was made as comic relief because it's so exaggerated that it can't be taken seriously. The minister is a horrible parent and should not be allowed to continue caring for those children. He is the perfect example of how society as a whole turns a blind eye to children's abuse at home simply because well their father is a very decent minister and if he's so religious it means that he's a good man. He neglects his children, his house, and his life in order to be a better minister. None of his children ever had much to eat, they ran around in literal rags, and at one point, one child watched as her pet rooster was slaughtered and served for dinner. The fact that school-age children know so much about the financial struggle of their father and feel so responsible for his well-being. That's wrong, he's the parent, the one who should be going out of his way to ensure their wellbeing not the other way around.
The children even adopted an orphan girl for two weeks before he noticed. The orphan girl lived under the same roof as her father. You don't notice a new child among your own? Seriously?
What made it worse is that the children continue to worship their father, he's a good dad just a bit of an airhead. And the town still thinks highly of him. He only needs a wife to help him run things at home. He is an awful parent, why do they think a wife is the solution? Poor woman who comes into that family would have to take charge of the children and then her adult husband who is an inconsiderate man who cares nothing but himself. What a wonderful way to start a marriage.
While reading it was easy to get through, but after I started thinking about it, it started to irritate me. I will continue reading the series as I am very close to completing it.
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Around the World: Canada
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