Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

Anne comes to live with siblings Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert on their farm called Green Gables in Avonlea on the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island. The Cuthberts decide to take in an orphan boy to help Matthew out with the farm work, but when he arrives to pick up an orphan boy, an orphan girl awaits him instead. The girl charms Matthew with her spirit and nonstop chatter and he asks Marilla if they can keep her. After a trial period, Anne wins over Marilla too and she's allowed to stay.

Due to her lack of education and social graces Anne often behaves in an unladylike manner, but her heart is good. Her best friend is Diana Barry and she is no longer allowed to see her when she accidently serves Diana red currant wine instead of raspberry cordial, which intoxocates her friend. After Anne saves Diana's sister's life (she is sick with croup), the two girls are allowed to be friends and play together again. This is exactly the kind of trouble that Anne often gets into.

Anne has another friend that she feuds with for most of the book. Gilbert Blythe is Anne's arch nemesis because he teased her about her red hair (a crime worthy of the silent treatment in Anne's book) and she competes with him throughout her years of education as they are the two best students in the class.

Anne does well in school and attends the Queens Academy where she wins a scholarship that will allow her to attend a four-year college next fall. On a trip home Anne finds that all has not been well at Green Gables in her absence. Matthew is now suffering heart problems and passes away before novel's end. Marilla is sure to go blind so Anne decides to stay home and care for her and Gilbert Blythe, of all people, gives up his teaching post at Avonlea school so that she may teach and be near Marilla. This act solidifies their friendship.

Genre: Fiction/Classic

Montgomery, L. M. (1988). Anne of green gables. New York: Children's Classics.

The Agony of Alice by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Alice McKinley is in 6th grade and lives with her older brother Lester who is in college and her father who manages a music store. Alice fears she is growing backward because she never fails to embarrass herself. She sets her hopes on becoming Miss Cole's adopted daughter because she's sure that with a mother figure in her life she'd start growing forward instead of backward. Alice doesn't end up in Miss Cole's class though, she ends up in Mrs. Plotkin's class. Readers journey through Alice's school year as she shops for jeans and ends up opening the wrong fitting room door only to find a boy in his underpants to the Halloween parade where she plays the part of the horse's rear to Patrick to her first train ride. Through it all she confides in her journal and comes to confide in Mrs. Plotkin as well, finding the mother she wanted in an unlikely place.

Genre: Realistic Fiction-Controversial

Naylor, P. R. (1985). The agony of Alice. New York: Atheneum.

Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus by Barbara Park illustrated by Denise Brunkus

Junie B. Jones is starting kindergarten, but she has to use the bus to get there! Junie B. (as she insists on being called) soon finds that she hates the bus and all of its loud sounds, heat, and bad smells. Fearing the bus ride home from school, Junie B. hatches a plan to hide in the classroom to avoid riding the "stupid smelly bus" again. Junie B. does such a good job hiding that when she emerges later she has the school all to herself to explore. She wanders around writing on the chalkboard, drinking water from the fountain, sharpening pencils in the library, and applying Band-Aids as she pretends to be the school nurse.


When Junie B. feels the call of nature her play is promptly interrupted as she desperately needs to find a bathroom. Much to her dismay they're all locked, which leads her to recall that in an emergency you should call 911! All ends well as Junie B. makes it to the bathroom in time (thanks to the janitor) and is reunited with her mother who tells her that tomorrow when she rides the bus she can sit next to a girl named Grace who will be riding the bus for the first time.

This book is an early chapter book and would be an appropriate choice for a first, second, or third grader, although it's just as much fun for an adult to share out loud with a much younger child. Junie B. is a character not to be forgotten. Told in the first person, Junie B. speaks and talks like a young child and helps us older readers remember what it was like when we didn't understand our teacher's last name and referred to her as just Mrs.!


Genre: Realistic Fiction

Park, B. (1992). Junie B. Jones and the stupid smelly bus. New York: Random House.