Rilla of Ingleside

By L. M. Montgomery
This has got to be one of my all time favorite books. While this book is technically part of the Anne of Green Gables series it is not necessary to read the other books in the series. In fact, if you are not fond of the Pollyanna like attitude to the Anne of Green Gables series then this book is much more realistic, sometimes to the point of being sad. This book has a dark aspect to it, the dark aspects of war and death, yet somehow escapes being depressing.
Rilla also instilled in me my interest in World War 1 and knitting socks. Rilla Blythe is Anne's youngest daughter and at the start of the book is only fifteen. She is pretty and sweet but she is also rather spoiled and vain. Rilla also has a slight problem with lisping which comes out when she is nervous.
At the start of the book you are struck with how peaceful everything is in the small Canadian village of Glen St. Mary. Rilla is like every other teenager then and now, all she can think of is her first "grown up" party and whether any of the boys will notice her.
Rilla seems so real, you can feel for her as she starts lisping right in front of Kenneth Ford, one of the most popular and good looking boys at the party. Then you feel her surprise and fear when someone brings news that England and hence Canada is at war.
Rilla's "perfect" life starts to unravel as first her older brother Jem and then others go away, some never to come back while others are unalterably changed. Yet there are funny moments such as when Rilla adopts a "War" baby or when a noted pacifist gets a tongue lashing in a church meeting. Rilla grows up from a spoiled child to a mature young woman who courageously faces hard times.
I really felt as if I was there in the midst of Ingleside, waiting for the mail and dreading telegraphs. This book has romance, humor, drama and sadness. Here is a quote from the previous book in the series, which ending ties into this one.
"Oh, I wish we had the old days back again," exclaimed Jem. "I'd love to be a soldier--a great trumphant general. I'd give EVERYTHING to see a big battle.
Well, Jem was to be a soldier and see a greater battle than had ever been fought in the world; but that was as yet far in the future; and the mother, whose first-born son he was, was wont to look on her boys and thank God that the "brave days of old," which Jem longed for, were gone for ever,and that never would it be necessary for the sons of Canada to ride forth to battle "for the ashes of their fathers and the temple of their gods."
The shadow of the Great Conflict had not yet made felt any forerunner of it's chill. The lads who were to fight, and perhaps fall, on the fields of France and Flanders, Gallipoli and Palestine, were still roguish schoolboys with a fair life in prospect before them: the girls whose hearts were to be wrung were yet fair little maidens a-star with hopes and dreams."
Reviewed by Elizabeth