BR Fridays: "Rilla of Ingleside"

I love Lucy Maud Montgomery's books but "Rilla of Ingleside" is my favorite. It is the last book in the "Anne of Green Gables" series and tells the story of Anne's youngest child.

The book opens on a scene where one of the main characters is reading the local newspaper. The front page has an article about the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo but what is really interesting to the character is the local "gossip" section. Who cares that some duke or other got himself killed when people you actually know are talked about in the paper, right?

It's 1913, Rilla is weeks away from turning 15, and her whole future is laid out before her. Her biggest worry is if anyone will ask her to dance or not at her first grown-up party. The thought that a war thousands of miles away could impact her life never crosses her mind.

That is what this book is about: those who stayed home and read the newspapers to read about the goings-on in lands they would never see but where many of those they know and love will fight a war. The book spans the years that encompass World War I. It's about being a grown-up and, no matter what age you are, how hard it is sometimes to be a grown up and do hard things.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of The Great War. Along with "All Quiet on the Western Front," this is a historically significant book. Telephones and telegraphs were the original cell phone and text message. Emails were letters that took weeks or months to reach the person with whom you were corresponding. Oceans were crossed in ships over days rather than in planes in a matter of hours. Mustard gas was the dreaded chemical weapon. We get to vicariously experience what it was like for those who stayed at home and waited for the news.