Manga Classics: Anne of Green Gables by Crystal S. Chan (adapted from the original by L.M. Montgomery), 319 pages.
This manga is a very faithful adaptation of beloved children's book Anne of Green Gables, the 1908 classic about an orphan who (after a miscommunication) goes to live with elderly brother and sister Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert on Prince Edward Island. Anne proceeds to get into all sorts of fairly hilarious trouble as she grows up in the wonderful little town.
Anne of Green Gables has always been a book that is very rich with visual descriptors, and I feel like illustrations really help this story to breath. I feel that the manga style in particular really helps emphasize Anne's love for beauty and tendency towards the romantic. As I mentioned before, this is an extremely faithful adaptation. Much of the text is taken directly from the book, and I noticed to major changes to the story. My only criticism is that the middle of the book felt like it was rushing, touching on a whole lot of incidents very briefly in quick succession for time. While I understand that not everything can fit in the comic, I find myself wishing she had cut some incidences entirely rather than the perfunctory treatment they got. I would still call this a really stellar new treatment of a stellar book, and I'm really glad I happened upon it on the shelf. I would recommend it for young readers and fans of the original alike.
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