Sonderbooks Book Review of Emily Climbs

Reviewed February 5, 2005.
First published in 1925.
Sonderbooks Stand-out 2005 (#2, Young Adult and Children's Classics)

Emily Climbs is the second book in L. M. Montgomery’s wonderful Emily trilogy, the most autobiographical of her books.

Emily wants to go to Shrewsbury to high school. Her aunt agrees to let her go, but only if she gives up her writing nonsense. Emily simply can’t do that, and is prepared to give up high school, but Cousin Jimmy helps Aunt Elizabeth come up with a compromise—Emily is to write only what is true while she is in high school.

Emily must stay with harsh Aunt Ruth in Shrewsbury, but her friends Ilse, Teddy, and Perry are also studying at the high school. Their adventures and escapades make up the bulk of the book, while in the background Emily sends out poetry and stories to magazines and meets with more and more success.

Emily’s beginnings as a writer parallel L. M. Montgomery’s own start. Any girl who’s ever dreamed of being a writer will take heart at Emily’s determination as she climbs the “Alpine Path.”

The Emily books are my prescription to myself whenever I feel at all discouraged about my writing. Coincidentally, I mentioned that recently to one of my writing buddies, and she told me that she, too, had just been reading Emily to keep herself from losing heart. And we aren’t the only ones. Madeleine L’Engle has written of how the Emily books inspired her to dream of being a great writer some day.

I read L. M. Montgomery’s books when I need a breath of fresh air.

Reviews of other L. M. Montgomery books:
The Blue Castle
Kilmeny of the Orchard
The Story Girl
The Golden Road
Magic for Marigold
Chronicles of Avonlea
Further Chronicles of Avonlea
The Alpine Path
The Watchman and Other Poems

The Emily Series:
Emily of New Moon
Emily's Quest

The Anne Series:
Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Avonlea
Anne of the Island
Anne of Windy Poplars
Anne's House of Dreams
Anne of Ingleside
Rainbow Valley
Rilla of Ingleside
The Road to Yesterday

Before Green Gables, by Budge Wilson
Marilla of Green Gables, by Sarah McCoy
The Annotated Anne of Green Gables
The Landscapes of Anne of Green Gables, by Catherine Reid
House of Dreams, by Liz Rosenberg

List in Publication Order

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Book Reviews by Sondra Eklund

******Emily Climbs*

by L. M. Montgomery