If I Couldn't Be Anne

by Kallie George, Geneviève Godbout (Illustrator)

Overview

A beautiful read-aloud picture book about the power of the imagination, inspired by the best-selling Anne of Green Gables.

In this whimsical and magical picture book, Anne's boundless imagination takes flight! She imagines being all the things she loves so dearly. If I Couldn't Be Anne, Anne with an e, what would I be . . . Anne wonders what it would be like to be the wind dancing round the treetops. A tightrope walker, breathless and brave. A princess in a palace made of apple blossoms. A magical frost fairy or a plain little wood elf. . . . But even as Anne's imagination soars far and wide, she comes back down to earth, recognizing that some things - like friendship! - are even better than the imagination.

With adorable illustrations, and a heartfelt message, this picture book is a perfect read-aloud introduction to L.M. Montgomery's beloved Anne and will delight her brand-new fans and lifelong readers alike.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781770499294
Publisher:	Tundra
Publication date:	05/12/2020
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
File size:	32 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

KALLIE GEORGE is an author, editor and creative writing teacher living in Vancouver, B.C. She has written numerous acclaimed books for children, including Goodnight, Anne; Anne Arrives; Anne's Kindred Spirits; The Lost Gift; Secrets I Know; Duck, Duck, Dinosaur and The Melancholic Mermaid, as well as the The Magical Animal Adoption Agency series and The Heartwood Hotel series. She has also taught writing workshops for children and adults across Canada, as well as in South Korea, and currently teaches at Emily Carr University.

Born and raised in Quebec, GENEVIÈVE GODBOUT studied traditional animation in Montreal and at the prestigious Gobelins school in Paris. She is the author/illustrator of the picture book What's Up, Maloo? and is the illustrator of a number of books for children, including Goodnight, Anne, The Pink Umbrella, When Santa Was a Baby, Kindergarten Luck and Joseph Fipps. Some of her clients include The Walt Disney Company, Chronicle, HMH, Flammarion, Bayard, Les éditions Milan and La Pastèque. She also works for clothing designers like Nadinoo and Mrs. Pomeranz, creating illustrations and prints for their collections.

Editorial Reviews

One of CCBC’s Best Books for Kids and Teens Fall 2020
Listed on A Mighty Girl's 2020 Books of the Year

From the Publisher

2020-02-18
An homage to L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables.

A picture book “inspired by Anne of Green Gables” could have intriguing possibilities—and there are legions of Anne fans worldwide already primed to love anything Anne. But therein lies the problem. The narrative’s storyline, and therefore its relevance, relies on readers’ knowledge of events in the middle-grade Anne of Green Gables book—an improbable occurrence for readers (unless they are nostalgic adults) of this picture book. Channeling Anne’s legendary imagination—so brilliantly created by Montgomery in her book—author George attempts to string the essence of various chapters of Anne of Green Gables into a sort of stream-of-consciousness Anne-ness, but she succeeds only in presenting a disembodied saccharine-ness. The repetitive “Anne with an e,” so important to her character development in the novel, becomes tedious in 40 pages. Godbout’s pastel-and–colored-pencil artwork infuses the double-page spreads with a visual delicacy created by the pairing of a sophisticated palette with a filmy execution style. While the full-color illustrations are well designed and offer a good variety of perspectives, their diaphanous atmosphere has the effect of further saturating the narrative’s already rose-colored reverence and gives the whole an overall effect of oozing in treacle. While the author’s sincere admiration of Anne shines through, this execution drowns in sentimentality.

Young readers are advised: Wait and read the original instead. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews