Dan in Green GablesA Modern Reimagining of Anne of Green Gables
Review posted December 5, 2025.
Penguin Workshop, 2025. 252 pages.
Review written October 9, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review
You know I had to read this book because of what an L. M. Montgomery and Anne of Green Gables fan I am!
This is not a retelling of Anne of Green Gables - it didn't have very many parallel incidents or try to stick to the storyline (which is honestly pretty episodic, anyway). But the set-up parallels Anne's situation:
Red-haired and freckled, 15-year-old Dan has been moving from place to place with his mother all his life. One day without warning, she takes him to the Tennessee home - complete with green gables - of his dead father's mother and father - his Mawmaw and Pawpaw. Mawmaw is warm and welcoming, but his grandfather is immediately put off by Dan's obvious queerness.
When his mother leaves without warning the next morning before Dan wakes up - Dan has to find his place there. Like Anne, he asks a lot of questions at church. Like Anne, his flamboyant presence at school makes a stir. Like Anne, Dan is rather dramatic in expressing himself. Though the details for all those things are quite different with a queer kid in 1995 small-town Tennessee instead of an orphan girl in 1800s small-town Prince Edward Island.
But like Anne, the beauty of the story comes in watching Dan settle in, make friends, find a home, and win the love of his two elderly caretakers - even the cantankerous one.
This is a graphic novel, so it's a quick read - but packs a heart-warming punch.