Emily of New Moon

Summary: When Emily Starr’s father dies, her selfish relatives send her to New Moon to live with her Aunt Elizabeth, who takes the orphan purely out of duty. As Emily struggles with loneliness and being misunderstood, she finds joy and peace in her imagination and writing, and makes new friends such as fiery Ilse and gentle Teddy. This is a beautiful story, very similar to Anne of Green Gables in that it is about an imaginative orphan, but it is also very different. Unlike Anne, Emily’s story is a little darker, and her imaginary friends aren’t people, they are nature.

My Review: I absolutely love this book! Emily is a sweet character who takes comfort in writing down her stories and problems. There is humor, but not as much as in Anne of Green Gables. This first book is my favorite out of the trilogy, because the other two get a little heavy on the romance and has strange occurrences that people believe to be supernatural.

My Takeaway: This book is full of wonderful descriptions of nature, and the joys and hardships or growing up. Parents might want to be aware that there are slight themes of sadness and death that might affect some children.

Romance: Very Light, you can tell Emily has a crush.

Nudity: None.

Language: Mentions of swearing.

Alcohol/drugs/smoking: mentions of alcohol and smoking.

Violence: None.

Darkness: Very light, death, Emily is often lonely

Bad Messages: None.

Good Messages: How precious friendship and forgiveness is.

Stars: 5