Books Like Anne of Green Gables

There is a specific feeling that comes from finishing Anne of Green Gables: the feeling of having lived inside a world made rich by imagination. L. M. Montgomery’s novel - the orphan Anne Shirley, her red hair, her overflowing imagination, her arrival at Green Gables and her transformation of the Cuthbert household and the whole town of Avonlea - has been loved for over a century because it celebrates the power of wonder. The problem after finishing it is the one every great book creates: you want more of the feeling - the imagination, the warmth, the growing. This guide collects the books that genuinely belong on that shelf.

What Made Anne of Green Gables Special#

Before the recommendations, it is worth naming what you are actually looking for, because the right next book depends on which part of the book stayed with you.

If the imagination stayed with you - Anne’s capacity to make the ordinary magical - then the novels of wonder will fit. If the family stayed with you - Marilla and Matthew, the love that grows slowly and deeply - then the found-family stories will be your natural next step. And if the growing up stayed with you - Anne’s education, her friendships, her becoming - then the coming-of-age stories will carry it forward. Most readers are looking for all three, and the books below cover the range.

The Novels of Imagination#

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett#

If there is one book that the Anne of Green Gables reader should pick up next, it is The Secret Garden. Mary Lennox, a spoiled orphan, is sent to a Yorkshire manor and discovers a hidden garden - and the garden, like Anne’s imagination, transforms everyone it touches.

The two books are sisters in spirit: the orphan who finds a home, the imagination that makes a world, the healing that comes from wonder. Where Anne transforms Avonlea with her stories, Mary transforms the garden and the people around it with her attention. For readers who loved the imagination of Anne, this is the essential next read.

Content notes: A gentle classic, suitable for readers of all ages.

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett#

For readers who want the imagination-as-survival theme, A Little Princess is the book. Sara Crewe, a rich girl reduced to poverty, keeps her imagination and her kindness through every humiliation - and the book is about the inner world that cannot be taken away.

The book shares Anne’s conviction that imagination is a form of strength: Sara’s stories, like Anne’s, are not escapes from reality but ways of enduring and transforming it. For readers who loved Anne’s capacity for wonder, Sara is the girl who proves it can carry you through anything.

Content notes: A gentle classic, suitable for readers of all ages.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry#

For readers who want the celebration of wonder in its most distilled form, The Little Prince is the book. The pilot stranded in the desert meets a prince from a tiny asteroid, and the book is a meditation on seeing with the heart rather than the eyes.

The book shares Anne’s core conviction - that the world is made rich by imagination - but delivers it as a fable for readers of every age. For readers who loved Anne’s way of seeing, this is the philosophical version of the same gift.

Content notes: A gentle classic, suitable for readers of all ages.

The Found-Family Stories#

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott#

For readers who want the warmth of family that Anne finds at Green Gables, Little Women is the essential book. The four March sisters, their mother Marmee, their poverty and their plenty - the novel is the great American story of family as the ground of character.

The two books are sisters in spirit: the household that forms a child, the love that is practiced daily, the growing up that happens inside it. For readers who loved the Cuthbert household, the March household is the larger, richer version.

Content notes: A gentle classic, suitable for readers of all ages.

Heidi by Johanna Spyri#

For readers who want the orphan-finds-a-home story in its purest form, Heidi is the book. The orphan girl Heidi is sent to her grandfather in the Swiss Alps, and her warmth and wonder transform the old man, the village and later a wealthy household in the city.

The book shares Anne’s shape exactly: the orphan whose spirit transforms everyone she touches. For readers who loved Anne’s effect on Marilla and Matthew, Heidi is the Alpine version of the same story.

Content notes: A gentle classic, suitable for readers of all ages.

The Coming-of-Age Stories#

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder#

For readers who want the growing-up story set in a particular place, Little House on the Prairie is the book. The Ingalls family builds a life in the wilderness, and the book is the account of that building - the log house, the garden, the winters, the love.

The book shares Anne’s celebration of the ordinary made meaningful: the small details of daily life rendered with love. For readers who loved the texture of Avonlea, the texture of the Ingalls’ frontier life is the American version.

Content notes: A gentle classic, suitable for readers of all ages.

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T. J. Klune#

For readers who want the found-family warmth in a modern, adult setting, The House in the Cerulean Sea is the book. Linus Baker, a by-the-book caseworker, is sent to inspect an orphanage for magical children - and the visit transforms his life, as the children and their guardian draw him into a family he never expected.

The book shares Anne’s two great themes - the family found rather than born, and the imagination that makes life rich - in a warm, funny contemporary novel. For adult readers who loved Anne and want the modern version of her world, this is the book.

Content notes: A warm contemporary novel, suitable for readers from the mid-teens up.

More from the Author#

Anne of Avonlea and the Rest of the Series by L. M. Montgomery#

For readers who cannot bear to leave Anne, the rest of the series delivers: Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island, Anne of Windy Poplars, Anne of Ingleside and the rest follow Anne through teaching, college, love and motherhood. Together the series completes the story of the girl readers fell in love with.

The books are for readers who want more of the feeling - the imagination, the warmth, the growing - and they deliver it in full measure.

Content notes: Gentle classics, suitable for readers of all ages.

How to Choose Your Next Read#

The right next book depends on what you are ready for. If you want the imagination: The Secret Garden or A Little Princess. If you want the celebration of wonder: The Little Prince. If you want the family: Little Women or Heidi. If you want the place: Little House on the Prairie. If you want it modern: The House in the Cerulean Sea. If you want more of Anne: the rest of the series.

There is no wrong order, but there is a sensible one: start with The Secret Garden for the same imagination, then Little Women for the family, then The House in the Cerulean Sea for the modern version, and let the others fill in as you go.

Reading Aloud Together#

One of the great pleasures of the Anne of Green Gables shelf is that it is built for reading aloud. These are books written to be heard - the rhythm of the prose, the comedy of the dialogue, the warmth that lands differently when it is spoken - and a family that reads them aloud discovers something the solitary reader misses: the shared laugh, the shared gasp, the moment when the reader’s voice catches and the listeners know they have all been moved together.

The sharing matters because the books’ deepest subject is family and belonging, and reading them aloud is itself an act of family - the gathering, the voices, the story carrying everyone along. A child who has met Anne through a parent’s voice has met her twice: once in the story and once in the love of the reading. The shelf is not finished when the books are read; it is finished when they are read together, and the reading becomes part of the family’s own story.

The Values the Shelf Carries#

Anne of Green Gables is, at its core, a book about values in action - the loyalty of friendship, the respect that Marilla and Matthew model, the healthy relationships that Anne builds wherever she goes. It belongs on the relationships shelf alongside the guides that explore those values directly. Our family values themes and reading notes walks through the values the Avonlea world embodies - the loyalty, the kindness, the imagination as a form of care - and it pairs naturally with this reading, because Anne’s world is a demonstration of exactly what the guide describes.

The shelf also connects to commitment, in a specific way: the book’s deepest subject is the love that grows slowly and is kept - Marilla’s gruff devotion, Anne’s loyalty to those who loved her first. Our guide to family-friendly marriage and commitment explores the bond that Anne’s world shows being built across its pages, and it belongs with this reading because the Avonlea community is a study in commitment practiced daily. Together these guides frame the fiction, and the fiction makes the guides feelable.

Conclusion#

Anne of Green Gables has been loved for over a century because it celebrates the power of imagination to transform ordinary life - the orphan who finds a home, the wonder that makes a world, the growing up that happens inside a family found rather than born. The books on this list are the honest responses to the question it leaves behind: what next?

The imagination of The Secret Garden and A Little Princess, the family of Little Women and Heidi, the place of Little House on the Prairie, the modern warmth of The House in the Cerulean Sea, and more of Anne herself in the rest of the series - together they carry the same truth in different voices: the world is made rich by wonder, and the wonder is the point. Read the notes, choose where you are, and let the books take their time.