Lucy Maud Montgomery, also known as L. M. Montgomery, is the author of Anne of Green Gables. If you don’t know anything about her, here are a few facts….
- 1. Her mother died when she was an infant, causing her father to send her off to her grandparents to be raised. Later she returned there to take care of her grandmother after her grandfather’s passing.
- 2. She was born on Prince Edward Island.
- 3. She attended a one-room school house, graduating from the tenth grade.
- 4. She was a teacher.
- 5. She was one of the first women to attend a university for higher learning.
- 6. She started writing when she was young, her first publication was posted in the local newspaper.
- 7. She had to publish under L. M. Montgomery to be accepted by the publisher.
How much of the above did you know about her? Here some more interesting facts:
- 1. Anne was an orphan on Prince Edward Island, adopted by an elderly brother and sister to help with the farm.
- 2. Anne’s devotion to the brother and sister shows when she returns home to take care of Murella after Matthew’s death.
- 3. Anne went to teacher college.
- 4. Anne had and chased her dreams.
Do you notice any similarities? You should because Ms. Montgomery wrote what she knew, just as all authors do. Her ancedotes of poetry, short stories, and novels did not become successes over night, but eventually Anne’s story would be saught after for generations to come.
Ms. Montgomery should be celebrated for her amazing life and accomplishments. By writing what she knew and had experienced herself, her stories are relatable, just as the reader wants them to be. That’s what pulls the reader in, they relate to what they read somehow. Maybe they were an orphan. Maybe they were adopted. Maybe they have a hard time fitting in. Maybe they don’t feel like it’s okay to be themselves. Whatever the case may be, we drink up Anne’s life as we read page after page of her story never knowing that bits and pieces are also Lucy’s story.
This is why banning books as we currently are breaks my heart. The author is simply taking a piece of themselves and sharing it with the world, not becuase they have to, but because they want to. When an author decides to write a story, it is because there is a desire inside of them to share their experience. There are a million reasons for wanting do this, for me personally it’s to help empower others.
I feel, in some ways, Lucy was trying to do that as well. Through fiction, she was telling her readers to go after their dreams and desires; become who they were meant to be. What’s so wrong with that!? Nothing!! Absolutely nothing, and yet, as a teacher, I am having to take books out of my classroom because they are my personal books. Why? Becuase of an unwarranted fear that a child will read one of the books and get the wrong idea.
Fiction is just that, fiction! A made up story to entertain people. Books are our release, our rescue, and our resource when necessary. It’s not the books that are the problems, it’s the people teaching the wrong ideology. Period. End of story. Yet, we have fallen and rolled backwards in time and are now banning books that aren’t harmful to anyone. What’s next? A book burning night??
Now, I do my best to stay politically nuetral, but my heart has been breaking since the day I was told all my books had to be taken out of my classroom. My students love to read and were pulling books off the shelves daily to read. Now, my shelves sit empty because I refuse to fill them with “appropriate” ones. As a teacher of reading and writing, this hurts. Why do I want to encourage my students to do either when we are being told what they can and cannot read? Why teach them to have a voice through writing if they’re being shown books can be taken away? What about the future author sitting in my classroom?
I know I will hit a nerve with many people with this blog. I apologize for that, but I needed to speak my peace as this has been sitting heavy on my heart. Let’s not be so quick to be in agreement with extreme action. It will destroy our future and the future of generations to come.
