The best book in the world!!!!!!!!!!!! - Rated 
This story is so wonderful! The best book I have read, infact I got told off in class for reading it and not one of the books from the class bookcase!
Anne's three sons go off to fight in WW1, one of them never to come back.Though I love all the Anne books I think Anne's childhood was a bit to fairytale like. This is totaly different. Rilla seems so real to me.
I think everybody should read this book, it describes WW1 so well. A must for all Anne fans.
Completes the "Anne of Green Gables" Series. Beautiful story set during WW1. - Rated
My favourite "Anne" book of all!! (and they are all wonderful!). Sadly, this is the eighth and last book in the series so when you get onto this one, savour every word. Written just after the war, and published in 1921, L. M. Montgomery gives, through her characters, a first-hand account of what life was like for ordinary Canadians during the First World War. Touching and, as always, beautifully written.
It's 1914 and Rilla, the baby of the Blythe family, is nearly 15 and about to embark on the best of her teenage years. She's pretty and bubbly, and keen to get along with nearly everyone. If only her other brothers and sisters, especially her dearest Walter, would stop treating her as a baby and see her as the grown up she so nearly is...
It seems Rilla's wishes are going to come true sooner than she thought. With the onset of war and young Canadian men signing up to enlist in their droves, Rilla soon realises that she must "grow up" and do her bit for the war effort. Her dear brother Jem is one of the first to go, but it's clear that the others will soon be following, and Rilla soon finds herself volunteering to look after an orphaned "war baby"... quite a challenge for a 15-year-old with little inclination for babies!
Rilla very quickly proves her worth. There are still some delightfully humourous episodes, typical of L. M. Montgomery, and it's wonderful to watch Rilla's journey through to adulthood, through the war years. Touched with sadness, it's more emotionally advanced than some of the other Anne books. Ages 11+
Rilla of Ingleside - Rated
"Rilla of Ingleside" is one of the most beautiful books that I have ever come across.
The main character is Anne's youngest daughter Rilla, a feisty, headstrong dreamer. Suddenly, Rilla is swept out of the comfort of her shallow, sheltered lifestyle and finds herself at the heart of a drama that will change her life forever. When her beloved brothers decide to enlist in the war; Rilla realizes that she too has to learn to triumph over her greatest obstacle...herself.
I was heartbroken when I read that Walter had been killed in the war. I felt as if I had watched him grow up from the wistful, innocent little lad he was in the book "Anne of Ingleside" to the tall, handsome lad of the splendid shining eyes. Indeed he had 'given up his today for our tomorrow', putting away his cherished dreams of being a poet to go to the battlefront and fight for his nation's future. L.M Montgomery describes the characters so poignantly that I shed tears of joy, laughter, sorrow and grief as I was swept into this beautiful and moving story.
Even now, I still picture the beloved characters as real people...
I can hear Anne's rapturous dreamings...
I can see Susan's careworn face and her gentle smile...
I can see Jem's fearless eyes and hear the carefree laughter in his voice...
I can see Walter's beautiful grey eyes and hear his voice declaring his decision to abandon all of his precious aspirations to fight on the battlefront..
I can see the laughter in Rilla's hazel eyes and hear the gentle lilt in her voice...
After several years of war, the family is eventually reunited as one again...although one child will never return. At least, if he does, they will not see him. But the Blythe family know that he will always be with them...in their hearts as well as in their spirits. Truly, "Rilla of Ingleside" is a greatly poignant and moving story consisting of a balance between humour, joy and tragedy.It ..and is a story that fittingly draws the great legacy of Anne and her children to a close.
The final novel in the story of Anne Shirley and her family - Rated
It is certainly hard to begin reading "Rilla of Ingleside," knowing it is the eighth and final book in the Anne of Green Gables series. The focus is on Rilla, born Bertha Marilla Blythe, the youngest of Anne's daughters, who is named for Anne Shirley's mother and the woman who took her in at Green Gables as a redheaded orphan. As the novel begins Rilla is fifteen years old and still looking forward to her first romance. But the novel takes a dramatic turn as the shadow of the First World War reaches all the way to Ingleside and sends a grief stricken Mrs. Blythe to her bed, but also a wonderful moment when Rilla sees her mother with eyes shinning and looking like a young girl. American involvement in that war was relatively brief, compared to what was happening with the rest of the world, so what I found fascinating is to see that war from the Canadian perspective, as it drags on year after year. "Rilla of Ingleside" was published in 1921, which means that L. M. Montgomery provided a contemporaneous account of the war as seen from the Canadian home front. Two of Anne's children, Jem and Walter, as well as Rilla's beau Kenneth Ford, head off to France, where they suffer as all young men suffer in wars. But we learn of all this second-hand as we see the impact of the war on the mothers, sisters and girls who were left behind to worry about Paris being shelled by the Germans along with the fate of the Empire and their loved ones. This gives "Rilla of Ingleside" an emotional depth unmatched in Montgomery's work by virtue of the fact we are talking about life and death in a world at war. While this might be a bit sobering for younger readers, by the time they get to this final novel in the "Anne of Green Gables" series I believe they will be well prepared; after all, the previous volume "Rainbow Valley," was actually written after "Rilla," which allows Montgomery to provide appropriate foreshadowing. There are certainly comic aspects to the story, mostly involving Susan Baker, the Blythe family cook who keeps getting marriage proposals during the war, but this an emotional tale where the key figure ends up being Little Dog Monday, waiting at the Glen St. Mary for Jem Blythe to come home. All in all, this is a most satisfying if unexpected conclusion to the story of Anne Shirley and her family.
Best of the serie - Rated
Rilla of Ingleside is my favorite of the Anne of Green Gables serie. Although I can't really say it belongs to the serie. It's different, mainly because the main caracter, Rilla, is so different from her mother, Anne Shirley and because the subject is far more realistic then the other books who seem to belong to another world, that is why I consider Rilla of Ingleside to be at the same time the best of the serie and also apart from it. It shows how hard it was for women to stay home while their husband, sweetheart, son or brother were fighting.
I recommend this book, not only to fans of Anne Shirley but also to anybody who wants to cry, laugh and smile.
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