Books Like Anne of Green Gables

There is a specific feeling that comes from finishing Anne of Green Gables: you want to go outside and look at everything with new eyes. L. M. Montgomery’s novel - the orphan Anne Shirley, with her red hair and her overflowing imagination, who arrives at Green Gables by mistake and transforms everyone around her - has been loved for over a century because it is the great novel of wonder.

The book’s power is Anne herself: the girl who names the lake “the Lake of Shining Waters,” who talks so much the neighbors call her “a perfect disgrace,” who turns the ordinary world into a place of enchantment simply by paying attention. The problem after finishing it is the one every great book creates: you want more of the feeling - the wonder, the warmth, the belonging. This guide collects the books that genuinely belong on that shelf.

What Made Anne of Green Gables Special#

Before the recommendations, it is worth naming what you are actually looking for, because the right next book depends on which part of the book stayed with you.

If the wonder stayed with you - Anne’s imagination, the Lake of Shining Waters, the seeing of the extraordinary in the ordinary - then the wonder books will fit. If the belonging stayed with you - the orphan finding a home, the love of Marilla and Matthew - then the belonging stories will be your natural next step. And if the growing up stayed with you - Anne’s scrapes, her friendships, her becoming - then the coming-of-age classics will carry it forward.

Most readers are looking for all three, and the books below cover the range.

The Wonder Books#

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett#

If there is one book that the Anne of Green Gables reader should pick up next, it is The Secret Garden. Mary Lennox, the lonely, spoiled child sent to a Yorkshire manor, discovers a hidden garden - and in bringing it back to life, brings herself and others back to life too.

The two books are sisters in spirit: the lonely child, the healing, the wonder. Where Anne finds enchantment in the Lake of Shining Waters, Mary finds it in the garden - and both stories are about the child who learns to see, and is healed by the seeing.

Content notes: A gentle classic, suitable for readers of all ages.

Heidi by Johanna Spyri#

For readers who want the wonder in its purest natural form, Heidi is the essential book. The orphan Heidi is sent to live with her grandfather in the Swiss Alps, and the mountain - the sun, the goats, the air - heals her and everyone who comes to her.

The book shares Anne’s celebration of nature and imagination, and it is the book for readers who loved the outdoors of Avonlea.

Content notes: A gentle classic, suitable for readers of all ages.

The Belonging Stories#

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott#

For readers who want the growing up and the belonging in full, Little Women is the essential book. The four March sisters - Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy - grow up together under their mother’s wisdom, and the novel tells the story of their becoming with a completeness few books match.

The two books belong together because Anne and Jo are the same spirit: the girl with the imagination and the fierce heart who finds her place in a family. For readers who loved Anne’s scrapes and friendships, the March household is the natural home.

Content notes: A gentle classic, suitable for readers of all ages.

Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter#

For readers who want the belonging story with the optimism turned up, Pollyanna is the book. The orphan Pollyanna arrives in a stern town and plays her “glad game” - finding something to be glad about in everything - until the gladness transforms the whole community.

The book shares Anne’s gift for transforming a place simply by being in it, and it is the book for readers who loved Anne’s effect on Avonlea.

Content notes: A gentle classic, suitable for readers of all ages.

The Coming-of-Age Classics#

Anne’s Series: Anne of Avonlea and Beyond#

For readers who want more of Anne herself, the series continues: Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island, Anne of Windy Poplars, Anne’s House of Dreams and the rest follow Anne through school, college, teaching, marriage and motherhood. The later books are quieter than the first, but they keep the warmth and the wonder, and they are the natural continuation for readers who cannot bear to leave Anne.

The series is the complete arc of a life, and it is the gift the readers of the first book most want: more of Anne, more of Avonlea, more of the world that felt like home.

Content notes: Gentle classics, suitable for readers of all ages.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry#

For readers who want the wonder in fable form, The Little Prince is the essential book. The pilot stranded in the desert, the small prince from a tiny planet, the rose, the fox, the taming - the book delivers more wisdom per page than almost anything ever written.

The two books share the same vision: the world is full of wonder if you learn to see it, and what is essential is invisible to the eye. Anne and the little prince are the same teacher - the one who reminds the grown-ups what they have forgotten.

Content notes: A gentle fable, suitable for readers of all ages.

More from L. M. Montgomery#

The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery#

For readers who want Montgomery’s magic in an adult setting, The Blue Castle is the book. Valancy Stirling, a plain, overlooked spinster, receives a life-changing diagnosis and decides to live at last - and the novel is the story of her rebellion into wonder.

The book shares Anne’s spirit - the imagination that transforms an ordinary life - with a sharper, more adult edge. For readers who loved Montgomery’s voice and want it grown up, this is the book.

Content notes: A gentle novel, suitable for readers from the mid-teens up.

Anne’s Lesson About Attention#

The deepest lesson of Anne of Green Gables is the lesson about attention: that the ordinary world is full of enchantment for the person who learns to see it. The Lake of Shining Waters is a pond; the White Way of Delight is a road. Anne’s magic is not in the places but in her way of looking, and the book is a sustained argument that attention is the beginning of wonder.

This is the lesson the shelf keeps returning to, and it is the one the reader carries longest: the seeing is available to everyone, in every ordinary place. The books on this list are all, in different ways, about the same attention - and the attention is the wonder.

How to Choose Your Next Read#

The right next book depends on what you are ready for. If you want the same wonder: The Secret Garden or Heidi. If you want the growing up: Little Women. If you want the optimism: Pollyanna. If you want more of Anne: the rest of the series. If you want the wonder in fable form: The Little Prince. If you want Montgomery grown up: The Blue Castle.

There is no wrong order, but there is a sensible one: start with The Secret Garden for the same wonder, then Little Women for the growing up, then the rest of the Anne series for more of her, and let the others fill in as you go.

A Note on Anne’s Voice#

Like Jane Eyre, Anne of Green Gables is a book carried by a voice - but where Jane’s voice is fierce and inward, Anne’s is bright and outward, a stream of talk that names everything it sees and turns it into something more. The Lake of Shining Waters, the White Way of Delight, the Avenue: Anne does not report the world; she re-enchants it, and the re-enchantment is the book. The reader who finishes it is not just fond of Anne; they are fond of the way Anne sees, and the seeing is the lesson.

This is why the books on this list belong together: they are all books about the transforming power of attention. Mary in the garden, Heidi on the mountain, the little prince on his planets - each is a seer, and each teaches the reader to see. The practice that follows is available to anyone: name something ordinary as if you were Anne - the street as the White Way, the pond as the Lake of Shining Waters - and notice what happens to your day. The wonder is not in the places; it is in the naming, and the naming is yours.

The Gratitude and Forgiveness Shelf#

Anne of Green Gables is, at its core, a book about gratitude - the capacity to find wonder in what you have been given, and the attention that makes the ordinary enchanted. It belongs on the wider growth shelf, alongside the books that explore that capacity. Our thoughtful guide to gratitude walks through the practice that Anne embodies, and it pairs naturally with this reading - because Anne’s wonder is, at heart, a gratitude practice made visible.

The shelf also connects to forgiveness, in a specific way: Anne’s story is full of forgiveness - her scrapes forgiven, her quarrels repaired, her growth made possible by the grace of the people around her. Our best forgiveness reading list collects the titles on that side of the project, and it belongs with this reading because the belonging Anne finds is built on forgiveness. Together they form part of the growth section of our library, where the whole shelf of wonder is gathered.

Anne’s Mistakes#

It is worth noticing how much of Anne of Green Gables is made of mistakes, because the mistakes are the book. Anne puts liniment in the cake instead of vanilla; she nearly drowns acting out a poem on a bridge; she breaks her slate over Gilbert’s head; she dyes her hair green; she falls off the roof of the Barry house and breaks her ankle. The book is a catalogue of disasters, and none of them diminishes Anne - because the point is not that she errs but that she owns it, apologizes and goes on with undiminished spirit.

This is the lesson the reader carries, and it is the quiet heart of the shelf: the capacity to fail and continue. The books on this list are full of such failures - Mary’s sourness, Colin’s tyranny, the March sisters’ quarrels - and each is the material of the growth. Reading them is a way of being reminded that character is not the absence of mistakes but the response to them: the owning, the repairing, the continuing. Anne’s green hair is the point; the owning is the growth; and the growth is what the books are for.

The Moment Matthew Buys the Dress#

Every reader of Anne of Green Gables has a favorite scene, and the one that defines the book’s heart is Matthew’s purchase of the puffed-sleeve dress. Matthew, the shyest man in Avonlea, who has barely spoken two words to anyone outside the family, drives to town, walks past the shop three times, and finally, for Anne’s sake, goes in and buys the dress with the puffed sleeves - the very thing Anne has longed for and been denied. It is the shyest love in literature, expressed in a single act of courage.

This is the scene the reader carries, and it is the key to the shelf: the love that is acted rather than spoken, the shyness overcome for someone else’s sake, the small act that means everything. The books on this list are full of such moments - Marilla’s gruff kindness, the March family’s sacrifices, the little prince’s taming. Reading them is a way of returning to the dress with the puffed sleeves, and of being reminded that the deepest love is the one that acts. The puffed sleeves are the point; the act is the love; and the love is what the book is for.

Conclusion#

Anne of Green Gables has been loved for over a century because it is the great novel of wonder - the orphan who transforms a household and a town simply by paying attention, who names the lake “the Lake of Shining Waters” and turns the ordinary into enchantment. The books on this list are the honest responses to the question it leaves behind: what next?

The wonder of Mary and Heidi, the growing up of the March sisters, the optimism of Pollyanna, the wisdom of the little prince, and the rest of Anne’s own story - together they carry the same truth in different voices: attention is the beginning of wonder, and the wonder is available in every ordinary place. Read the notes, choose where you are, and let the books take their time.