The Story Girl

L.M. MONTGOMERY

First line: “I do like a road, because you can be always wondering what is at the end of it.”

Stats for my copy: Cloth bound hardback, published by Grosset & Dunlap, 1911; 365 pages; purchased at a library book sale.

My thoughts: I have very fond memories of the ANNE OF GREEN GABLES series, which I first read many many years ago. So when my sister and I went to a library book sale and I saw this book on the “Old Books” table, I snatched it up, even though I'd not heard of it before. Then my sister saw it in one of my sacks and told me she'd watched a series with a character who was always referred to as the story girl. After we'd gone home, she looked it up in her Netflix history and told me it was called “The Road to Avonlea”.

It was an enjoyable book, though I didn't like it nearly as much as I remember loving the Anne books.

The narrator is Beverly King, who is sent to Prince Edward Island with his brother to stay with relatives while their father is working in another country. The Story Girl is cousin Sara Stanley, not a particularly beautiful girl, but when she tells a story her audience is always enraptured and drawn to her. As Bev and his brother and cousins, along with their friend, also called Sara, and hired boy Peter enjoy their idyllic life, going to school and church and having mishaps and misadventures, The Story Girl often amuses them with her tales.

Before starting the book, I found and ordered the sequel, THE GOLDEN ROAD, through Paperback Swap, with the intention of passing both books to my sister after reading them. However, rather than read them back to back as originally planned, I'm setting the second book aside for awhile. I also think I'll reread ANNE OF GREEN GABLES, and then give that to my sister as well, since to my surprise she said she hadn't read any of that series. I cannot imagine how she missed them since I'm pretty sure I read them all when we were in high school. Maybe she just doesn't remember.