Anne of the Library-on-the-Hill

Written by Catherine Little

Illustrated by Sae Kimura

Plumleaf Press

978-1-7381-6524-7

32 pp.

 Ages 6-10

August 2024 

This year we will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Lucy Maud Montgomery, the author of Anne of Green Gables. There will be several titles released to observe this anniversary, some fiction, some non-fiction, and Anne of the Library-on-the-Hill celebrates Anne of Green Gables with a wholly fictionalized story about another little girl named Anne, with an "e" of course.

 

Anne, of Anne of the Library-on-the-Hill, lives with her parents in Toronto, and regularly visits the Wychwood Library with her father, an artist. This library which she calls Library-on-the-Hill is a special place for her and father, and they both relish the plethora of books they borrow. Her mother is more of an industrious woman who worries that too much imagination might not be helping Anne.

From Anne of the Library-on-the-Hill, written by Catherine Little, illustrated by Sae Kimura

Then World War I arrives, and Father must leave home to serve. His absence, monumental in itself, results in additional changes to the household, with Mother taking on laundry work and no time to take Anne to the Library-on-the-Hill for books. Fortunately, one of Mother's customers, Mrs. Mary Beal shares her own children's old books with Anne. And when a new Library-on-the-Hill is opened, Anne's Mother ultimately gives Anne permission to visit it on her own.

From Anne of the Library-on-the-Hill, written by Catherine Little, illustrated by Sae Kimura

Sadly, the family receives bad news about Father from Vimy Ridge. Missing her father terribly, Anne is comforted when her mother shares a special book that Anne's father had gifted her early in their marriage. Yes, it is Anne of Green Gables, published in 1908.

From Anne of the Library-on-the-Hill, written by Catherine Little, illustrated by Sae Kimura

There's still more that happens to the Anne of Catherine Little's story, including an encounter with the famous author herself, but suffice it to say that our Anne takes wisdom from Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne that supports her through life's good days and bad.

“I believe the nicest and sweetest days
are not those on which anything very
splendid or wonderful or exciting happens
but just those that bring simple little
pleasures, following one another softly,
like pearls slipping off a string.”

                                                                           ~ From Anne of Green Gables

 

Our two Annes, that of Lucy Maud Montgomery's story and that of Catherine Little's, share some commonalities though their stories are completely different. They both had father figures who encouraged their passions for imaginative endeavours and maternal figures who were more pragmatic. The women weren't mean; they were just prudent. Not surprising that Matthew and Anne's father both had soft spots for their Annes and defended them tactfully to the women in their lives. Beyond the characters themselves, Catherine Little intersperses her story with known experiences from Montgomery's life including her friendship with Mary Beal and attending an event that included Nellie McCLung. By borrowing elements of Anne of Green Gables to feed her story of Anne of the Library-on-the-Hill, Catherine Little pays homage to the much beloved story while giving us a whole new story. If you didn't know about Anne of Green Gables –though Catherine Little provides plenty of background information about Anne and L. M. Montgomery to get you caught up–this Anne and her library and her life would still captivate.

The art of Anne of the Library-on-the-Hill has been created by Sae Kimura, who also illustrated Catherine Little's earlier books, Twelve in a Race and Dragon's Dilemma. Using a variety of media, including acrylic, gouache, watercolour, and pencil crayon, Toronto's Sae Kimura gives an ethereal sense to Anne of the Library-on-the-Hill, which works well for a story set in the mid-late 1910s to early 1920s. The reality of Anne's life is never in question but the richness of her imagination and passion for life is always evident, in the colours of her surroundings, in the brightness of her reading, and the joy she derives from being with her father, visiting the library, and more.

From Anne of the Library-on-the-Hill, written by Catherine Little, illustrated by Sae Kimura

Celebrate Anne of Green Gables and Lucy Maud Montgomery by reading a picture book that honours both while creating something that is wholly its own. With Anne of the Library-on-the-Hill, Catherine Little and Sae Kimura remind us of the anchor that reading can be in a child's life and also the pillar that Anne of Green Gables is in both the CanLit world and internationally.

The Vimy Oaks: A Journey to Peace

Written by Linda Granfield

Illustrated by Brian Deines

North Winds Press (Scholastic Canada)

978-1-4431-4850-4

36 pp.

Ages 7+

March 2017

On April 9th, 2017, the world will mark the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.  Many new books published to commemorate the anniversary will be based in the First World War and in that northern region of France.  However, though Vimy Ridge is the origin of this story, Linda Granfield takes young readers into the aftermath of the war when a soldier takes a little piece away with him and plants a world of peace and remembrance far, far away.

From back cover of The Vimy Oaks

by Linda Granfield

illus. by Brian Deines

With photographs and illustrations, Linda Granfield introduces young readers to the beginnings  of the Great War and the role of a young Canadian teacher Leslie H. Miller after his enlistment and deployment with the Canadian Signal Corps.  Along with diary observations of peoples and places and his job with the Signal Corps, Leslie Miller took note of the landscapes encountered and the trees growing within. While the battle at Vimy is noted, it is Leslie Miller’s collection of a few acorns from oak trees blasted during the attack that makes Linda Granfield’s story.  These acorns were shipped backed to his family in Ontario.  Leslie Miller returned to Canada in 1919 and, after ventures to university and teaching again, returned home to the family farm where the oak saplings from the acorns he gathered became the basis for the farm he and his new wife built, The Vimy Oaks.  The history of the farm and the trees, as well as the recognition of the importance of that battle on Vimy, complete the story of Linda Granfield’s The Vimy Oaks.

From The Vimy Oaks

by Linda Granfield

illus. by Brian Deines

The story of Vimy could be a horrific one but Linda Granfield’s text which she peppers with quotations from Leslie Miller’s diary is broad, encapsulating his experiences without embedding young readers in the horrors of his days. The Vimy Oaks is illustrated by Brian Deines, whose artwork has taken readers to different times and places in The Road to Afghanistan (2013), A Bear in War (2012), Bear on the Homefront (2014) and Adrift at Sea (2016). Here again Brian Deines is able to bring his deft oil work to giving light to dark times and shine to landscapes of war and verdant promise.

As a book of non-fiction, The Vimy Oaks: A Journey to Peace provides an introduction to a monumental battle while intriguing readers with a little known story of Vimy on Canadian land. It’s a unique story and one that commemorates the battle with the promise of growth and majesty.  I was discouraged to hear some of the oaks were removed for the widening of a road but pleased to learn that the trees were part of the Vimy Oaks Repatriation Project that ensured the oaks would once again grow on Vimy Ridge, as well as at memorials across Canada.   It seems the oaks have come full circle, from Vimy to Canada and back to Vimy, perhaps as it should be.

From The Vimy Oaks

by Linda Granfield

illus. by Brian Deines