Book choices in Et tu Brute? The ides of March must mean spring 2016!

When I was in second year of juniors, or year 4 as it would be called now (ages 8/9), it was time to choose a new reading book. Miss Hingley had a large bookcase at the back of the class, lots of choice which always made it difficult. I remember this one time, and only this one time. I even remember the two books I agonised over, although why this is I don’t know. Anyway, I looked at two books. The first was Anne of Green Gables and the other was Huckleberry Finn. Having just watched Tom Sawyer on telly I was drawn to the Huck Finn book, especially as the cover of Anne was rather prissy. Trust me, I was not a prissy kid! Several of my friends told me that they loved Anne but Huck won. I sat at my desk and I worked bloody hard to read him, deep south dialect and all. I didn’t understand it all but I loved his character, the rebellion and freedom he gave to Jim.

I never did read Anne and of that I am glad.

Why am I glad? It is one of those old books that has gone down as a literary classic!? Well, here’s the thing. As a kid I loved Heidi. I would sit and sob as Heidi ran in to the streets of Frankfurt to find the pines she could hear, only to discover they were carriage wheels and I would skip gaily down any hill I could find, pretending I was on the alm with the grandfather waiting, gruffly, at the top. I also loved Katy and what she did. I was horrified to discover how stuffy her new friend was when she came to tea, exited as she climbed the roof between the two rival schools, I even egged her on to go on the swing despite the fact that she had been told not to… Alas, if only her aunt had given her a reason…

The problem for me, with these books, was the sequels. The Heidi sequels weren’t written by Joanna Spyri and Heidi lost all her character whereas Katy’s sequels had the same author but, how disappointing, Katy had grown up and I no longer aspired to be her!!

Obviously, Anne has many, many sequels so imagine my disappointment if I had read them as a child.

A few months back, Charis and Salty Dog both recommended that I read Anne of Green Gables which, as a Canadian classic was, I’m sure, an important part of their childhoods (both being Canadian) and so I searched Amazon, as you do, and discovered that I could get the entire series, including books that didn’t have Anne at the forefront and an audio version, for 99p on kindle. I’m currently on Anne of Ingleside, mother of several children and married to her childhood nemesis. I’ve been through college with her, and her teaching career; we’ve suffered the death of her foster father and firstborn child together. As an adult, who has been a child, I love Anne in all her forms because I understand both the child and the adult. Her immense depth of understanding comes through in all levels of her life. I really want to find Four Winds and Ingleside. I want to discover the Hollow and witness the games played there, go to the harbour to watch the boats come and go. I’d love to have Gilbert care for my kids when they were sick.

Yes, I’m glad I picked Huckleberry Finn back in ‘79 because it meant that I had all this to discover now.