Meet Me at Green Gables: The True Story of Gracie & Glenda

Volume XXV / Issue 7 - October 19 / 2018

Author:

Michel Bourque

Illustrated by:

Jean-Luc Trudel

Moncton, NB: Bouton d’or Acadie (Distributed by Nimbus), 2017

40 pp., pbk. & pdf, $13.95 (pbk.), $10.95 (pdf)

ISBN:

978-2-89750-067-2 (pbk.)

978-2-89750-068-9 (pdf)

Grades:

2-4

Ages:

7-9

Review by:

Ellen Heaney

Excerpt:

Meet Me at Green Gables is another book to be published this year using L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables as its inspiration. (See also Summer in the Land of Anne by Elizabeth Epperley.)

Glenda and Gracie, the two girls in the book who were the real Glenda Landry and Gracie Finley, wish to be performers. They meet, not when the beautiful Confederation Centre for the Arts is opened in Charlottetown by Queen Elizabeth II in 1964, and not at dance class or singing lessons thereafter, both events mentioned in detail here, but at the auditions for a chance to be on the big stage. They immediately become fast friends, ready to help each other pursue the dream.

When Gracie learns a new part, Glenda feeds her the missing lines. When Glenda learns a dance step, Gracie keeps time by tapping her foot. Between rehearsals, they often head to the beach. Sometimes Gracie shows Glenda how to spin pirouettes in the sand. Sitting around a campfire, Glenda teaches Gracie some silly songs.

Their aspirations are truly realized when they are both cast in a new production, Anne of Green Gables – the Musical, one as Anne and the other as Diana Barry. (Here the author plays with the timeline a bit. Although Glenda and Gracie did play these parts in Charlottetown, the historical note at the back of the book informs us that they did not start their runs at the same time.)

The magic of the experience is summed up on the last page, which describes the end of opening night:

Gracie and Glenda take a deep breath and perform a dazzling duet.

When the audience bursts into applause, Gracie squeezes Glenda’s hand.

When the curtain comes down, Grace and Glenda know it’s the beginning of a wonderful adventure. Like Anne and Diana, they’ll have all the time in the world to play, sing and dance.

At the very same time, they say: “Just like Anne and Diana. We’ll be best friends together too!”

Author Bourque has captured strong feelings of friendship and anticipation. Although the girls know all the details of life at Green Gables, the book is about their lives and their dreams, not Anne’s or Montgomery’s.

Jean-Luc Trudel is a Québécois artist who was shortlisted for the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award in 2014 for Ma Petite Boule D’Amour. His use of shades of lavender and taupe lend an old-fashioned note to the modern story. He has a facility for isolating a detail in a larger picture - the Queen at the ribbon cutting for the Centre, her solid figure standing in front of a blur of onlookers; a dial telephone that takes up half a page in the scene describing the call to auditions – that makes his illustrative point magnificently. (Readers are warned to watch out for an unexpected gatefold in the middle of the book which opens to reveal the girls' first view of the stage at the Confederation Centre.)

Four pages of back matter describe the history of the ‘Anne’ musical and Glenda's and Gracie’s contributions to it.

Meet Me at Green Gables is a different take on the Anne story and a charming additional purchase which will be of special interest to children who like the idea of being in the spotlight.

Recommended

Reviewer:

Ellen Heaney, a retired children’s librarian, lives in Coquitlam, British Columbia.