The Anne of Green Gables Picture Book

Joan Weller is head librarian at the West Branch of Ottawa Public
Library, and the children’s literature reviewer for the Ottawa
Citizen.

The book’s title is misleading since “picture book” implies that text and illustration are inseparable in their presentation of the story. This book is really a coloring book preceded by a four-page synopsis of L.M. Montgomery’s classic novel. The summary covering most of the major events in the story is adequate. The book’s 24 illustrations, boldly outlined in black, lend themselves well to colouring by young children. Obviously influenced by the Charlottetown Festival’s musical presentation, the illustrator’s attractive pictures help to expand the text and create setting, characterization, and atmosphere. However, both the summary and the illustrations fail to depict the mature Anne of the original novel’s conclusion. Since the book’s appeal rests with young children, the true picture-book format, in which the children could learn to read the summary with the help of accompanying self-colored pictures, would have been more successful.