Books Like Anne of Green Gables

Some characters are so vivid that they seem to step off the page and into your life. Anne Shirley is exactly that kind of character: an orphan with red hair, a bottomless imagination and a gift for turning the ordinary into the extraordinary. Anne of Green Gables tells the story of how Anne arrives at Green Gables on Prince Edward Island - expected by no one, wanted by no one - and transforms the lives of Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert, the stern siblings who take her in, and everyone else in Avonlea. L. M. Montgomery’s novel has been beloved for more than a century because it is funny, warm and wise, and because it is entirely clean.

If you have just finished Anne of Green Gables and are looking for your next read, this guide is for you. The books below share its spirit: spirited heroines, loving homes transformed by a child’s imagination, close friendships and storytelling that is clean, wholesome and family friendly. For each recommendation, you will find a short description and an honest content note, so you can choose with confidence.

More from L. M. Montgomery#

The most natural place to start is with the author herself. Montgomery wrote several novels in the same register as Anne of Green Gables, and the closest is the Emily of New Moon series.

Emily Byrd Starr, the heroine of Emily of New Moon, is an orphan with red hair and a fierce imagination - readers who love Anne will recognize the type immediately. Emily is sent to live with her aunts at New Moon, a farm on Prince Edward Island, and the book follows her struggles to be understood, her secret writing and her friendship with the wild Ilse Burnley. Where Anne is sunny, Emily is more intense and more solitary, but the two books share the same warmth, the same island setting and the same portrait of a child’s inner life. The series continues with Emily Climbs and Emily’s Quest, and together they form Montgomery’s other great achievement. All are entirely clean.

Montgomery also wrote The Story Girl, a warm portrait of a group of cousins on Prince Edward Island and the girl who tells them stories, and the Anne sequels - Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island and the books that follow Anne through marriage and motherhood. For readers who want to stay in Anne’s world, the sequels are essential.

The Classic Companions#

Beyond Montgomery, the classics that share Anne’s spirit are among the most beloved books in the language, and the two most essential are by Louisa May Alcott and Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott is the great sister novel, and its heroine Jo March is Anne’s closest literary cousin. Jo is spirited, impatient, full of ambition and love, and her growing-up story - with her sisters Meg, Beth and Amy in Concord during the Civil War - is one of the most beloved in all of fiction. The book shares Anne of Green Gables’s warmth, humor and clean storytelling, and its portrait of a girl learning to become herself is the same story Anne tells. For readers who loved Anne’s voice, Jo’s is waiting.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett shares Anne’s arc in a different key. Mary Lennox, like Anne, is an orphan who arrives in a new place unwanted, and like Anne she transforms the place and is transformed by it. Where Anne is healed by love and imagination, Mary is healed by a garden, and the book’s portrait of a neglected child finding purpose in the natural world is one of the most hopeful stories ever written. It is entirely clean, and it is the perfect next read for Anne’s fans.

A Little Princess, also by Burnett, is the other essential companion: Sara Crewe, a wealthy little girl who loses everything and keeps her dignity, imagination and kindness. The book’s portrait of a child enduring hardship with grace is deeply moving, and it shares Anne’s conviction that imagination is a kind of wealth.

More Wholesome Classics#

The early twentieth century produced several novels that share Anne’s spirit, and two series are essential for readers who loved Green Gables.

The Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder is the great American family saga, and its heroine, Laura, shares Anne’s spirit in a frontier register. The series follows the Ingalls family across the American frontier, and its portrait of a girl growing up with her sister Mary, her wild little sister Carrie and her parents is warm, honest and deeply satisfying. The books share Anne’s love of the natural world and its portrait of a child finding her place in a family and a world. They are clean and suitable for readers of many ages.

Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter shares Anne’s sunny optimism in a different key. Pollyanna Whittier, an orphan sent to live with her stern aunt, plays the “glad game” - finding something to be glad about in every situation - and transforms her whole town. The book shares Anne’s portrait of a child who changes the people around her simply by being herself, and its optimism is the same register as Anne’s. It is clean and warm, though readers should know that its relentless gladness is part of its period charm; the book rewards reading with a smile and a little irony.

The Betsy-Tacy Books#

For readers who want Anne’s warmth and humor in a slightly later setting, Maud Hart Lovelace’s Betsy-Tacy series is a hidden treasure.

The series begins with Betsy-Tacy, the story of two little girls - Betsy Ray and Tacy Kelly - growing up on Hill Street in a small Minnesota town at the turn of the twentieth century. The early books are warm and funny portraits of childhood friendship, and the later books follow Betsy through high school, her writing ambitions and her romances. Betsy shares Anne’s imagination and her gift for friendship, and the series is entirely clean. It is the series that readers who loved Anne’s girlhood most often discover next, and it rewards reading at every age.

Modern Books with the Same Spirit#

The spirit of Anne of Green Gables did not end with the classics. Modern fiction has produced several books that carry the same warmth, and the most essential are by Jeanne Birdsall and Karina Yan Glaser.

The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall, winner of the National Book Award, is the modern book that comes closest to Anne’s spirit. It follows four sisters on a summer holiday in a cottage on the grounds of a grand estate, where they befriend the boy next door and have a series of gentle adventures. The book shares Anne’s warmth, humor and clean storytelling, and its portrait of a close family of girls is pure delight. Its sequels continue the story.

The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser follows five siblings in a Harlem brownstone who have five days to save their home when their landlord refuses to renew the lease. The book shares Anne’s warmth and its portrait of a child (or five children) transforming a community, and it is clean and deeply satisfying.

Choosing Your Next Read#

With so many wonderful options, the question is where to start. Here is a quick guide.

If you want to stay in Montgomery’s world, start with Emily of New Moon or the Anne sequels. If you want another spirited heroine, start with Little Women (Jo is Anne’s closest cousin) or The Secret Garden. If you want the frontier version, start with Little House on the Prairie. If you want the sunny register, start with Pollyanna. If you want warmth and humor in a slightly later setting, start with Betsy-Tacy. And if you want a modern book with the same heart, start with The Penderwicks.

Whichever you choose, you can read with confidence: every book on this list is clean, wholesome and suitable for readers of many ages, and each one carries at least a piece of what makes Anne of Green Gables so beloved.

Building a Wholesome Reading List#

If this guide has given you a taste for clean, wholesome classics, there is a whole shelf waiting. Our guide to family-friendly clean books for adults offers thoughtful recommendations across genres, and our meaningful clean books for teens list extends into the young adult territory. The stories section is full of reading lists like this one, built with the same care and the same content notes, so you can always find your next read with confidence.

The books that share Anne’s spirit are a gift: they are clean without being empty, wholesome without being dull, and warm without being sentimental. Start with the ones here, and let them lead you to the whole tradition.

The Kindred Spirits Beyond the Page#

One of the most enduring gifts of Anne of Green Gables is that it taught generations of readers to look for kindred spirits - people who understand you without explanation, who share your love of beautiful things, who make the ordinary world feel enchanted. The books on this list are full of such people, and reading them is itself a way of finding kindred spirits across time: Montgomery’s Emily Byrd Starr, who keeps her own private journal and her own fierce ambitions; the Penderwick sisters, whose summers are built on shared jokes and loyalties; Betsy Ray, whose ordinary life becomes extraordinary through her own attentiveness to it. These are books that reward readers who pay attention to the small moments - the light on the water, the sound of rain on the roof, the way a person’s face changes when they smile. They are also books that comfort without condescending, that believe in beauty without ignoring sorrow, and that trust young readers with big feelings. In that sense, every book here is a kindred spirit to Anne of Green Gables itself, and reading them is like walking into a room where you are immediately understood.

Conclusion#

Anne of Green Gables endures because it tells a true and hopeful story: that a child’s imagination is a kind of wealth, that a home can be made by love rather than blood, and that being yourself - fully, unapologetically, with all your flaws and dreams - is the best way to change the world. The books in this guide share that story in their own ways - Emily’s intensity, Jo’s ambition, Mary’s garden, Laura’s frontier, Betsy’s friendship - and they are all clean, wholesome and worthy of the shelf beside Montgomery’s classic.

Pick one, find a quiet corner, and let the next kindred spirit appear.