Anne of Avonlea

Anne of Avonlea, L.M. Montgomery's sequel to Anne of Green Gables, follows Anne Shirley as she takes her first job teaching school in Avonlea.

Anne is sixteen now, and Marilla has let her put off college to stay home at Green Gables. She takes over the village school, where a room full of restless children — including a few who used to be her own tormentors — test her patience and her imagination in equal measure. She still daydreams as much as ever, but teaching starts to teach her a few things back.

Life at Green Gables gets fuller too. Marilla takes in a pair of orphaned six-year-old twins, quiet Dora and mischievous Davy, and Anne finds herself half-raising them alongside her. She clashes with a gruff new neighbor, Mr. Harrison, and his foul-mouthed parrot, then slowly wins him over. She also strikes up an unlikely friendship with Miss Lavendar Lewis, a gentle woman living alone in a house full of old memories, and helps nudge a long-buried romance back to life. Through it all, her bond with steady, patient Gilbert Blythe keeps deepening, one quiet conversation at a time.

This is a coming-of-age story built from small-town life rather than big drama — village gossip, schoolroom mishaps, garden parties, and the easy friendship of the old Story Club crowd, Diana and Jane among them. It has the same gentle humor and Prince Edward Island scenery that made the first book beloved, with Anne now old enough to notice how much she's changed.

A natural pick for anyone who grew up with Anne of Green Gables, or who loves cozy, character-driven classics where nothing worse than a runaway cow ever happens. Elizabeth Grace's soft reading settles into Avonlea's easy rhythm, and Anne's school year will still be going long after you've nodded off.