The Anne of Green Gables Pop-up Storybook

Elisabeth Anne MacDonald-Murray is an assistant professor of English at
the University of Western Ontario.

It was probably inevitable that in the mass-marketing of Anne of Green
Gables, the classic Canadian story should eventually appear as a pop-up
book aimed at a very young audience. Unfortunately, Key Porter Books has
missed an opportunity to produce a text that would introduce young
children to one of the best-loved heroines in children’s literature.
The Anne of Green Gables Pop-Up Storybook has abridged the entire novel
into four short pages of text that conveys none of the charm and spirit
of the original. As a result, despite the attractive artwork, the book
completely fails to re-create the sweet vivacity of L.M. Montgomery’s
beloved character in any way that would appeal to a young reader or
encourage one to find out more about Anne.

Although the book is stated to be “by L.M. Montgomery,” the
attribution of this work to Montgomery is highly misleading. The
narrative itself is composed of painfully brief paraphrases of specific
episodes, with tiny snippets of Montgomery’s original text thrown in.
The short, visual nature of the pop-up book format is uniquely suited to
the presentation of a brief and descriptive episode; the portrayal of
any one of Anne’s adventures would have been appropriate, but the
attempt to condense the essence of an entire novel into four pages was
clearly misguided. Keith Moseley’s illustrations are attractive and
incorp-orate an eye-catching sense of motion in the pop-up action of the
pages, yet they all contain one unfortunate flaw: any fan of Anne will
tell you that her dresses did not have puffed sleeves! Not recommended.