Oh my goodness, how I LOVED celebrating L.M. Montgomery this month. Ever since reading The Blue Castle last year, I’ve been looking forward to reading more of Montgomery’s work. I have such fond childhood memories of watching Road to Avonlea (the show inspired by The Story Girl), and the name of my blog is The Story Girl so I really couldn’t have been more excited to read this book. It’s no surprise, it didn’t disappoint!
Before diving into our discussion questions, I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge how wonderful this month’s virtual event with Dr. Laura Robinson was. Laura is a red-headed L.M. Montgomery scholar and wealth of knowledge on Montgomery, her life, the revisions of her diaries, symbolism in her stories and more. My jaw dropped several times during our discussion — if you haven’t watched it yet, definitely do so when you get the chance! Watch here ❤️
2. Which of the children in the book were most like you were a child?
3. How would you compare Sara Stanley and Anne Shirley? Montgomery’s characters are certainly imaginative!
4. Do you have a favorite excerpt from the book? One of mine is: “If voices had colour, hers would have been like a rainbow. It made words live. Whatever she said became a breathing entity, not a mere verbal statement or utterance.”
5. What do you think the main message of The Story Girl is?
6. Feel free to share any other thoughts you have!
Laura Brown says
One of my favorite 💖 passages: “The Story Girl sighed again. She loved expressive words, and treasured them as some girls might have treasured jewels. To her, they were as lustrous pearls, threaded on the crimson cord of vivid fancy. When she met with a new one she uttered it over and over to herself in solitude, weighing it, caressing it, infusing it with the radiance of her voice, making it her own in all its possibilities forever.” Ch. 21
Laura Maga says
In chapter 21 I found one of the best descriptions of the sweet moment when Summer melts into Autumn : “ August went out and September came in. Harvest was ended and though summer was not yet gone, her face was turned westering .The asters lettered her retreating footsteps in a purple script, and over the hills and valleys hung a faint blue smoke as if Nature was worshipping at her woodland altar.”
So poetic and beautiful…
CAROL RIOS says
This was the first L. M. Montgomery book I read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
One of my favorite quotes from the book came from Beverly: “But all things considered, we liked the prospect of our summer very much. Felicity to look at, the Story Girl to tell her tales of wonder, Cecily to admire us, Dan and Peter to play with — what more could reasonable fellows want? Chapter 3. (I liked this because it gave us an overall view of the children at the beginning of the book).
I think I identify with Felicity and Sara mostly. Since I was the oldest child, I tended to be a little bossy!
I think one important message of the book is that if you have a strong set of close friends you are very lucky. Friends will be there for you no matter the circumstances.
Sophia Buras says
This was the very first book by L.M. Montgomery I’ve read. The others are listed on my TBR to read soon I very much enjoyed this book!
Of all the children I would say I’m more like Bev. We both have a brother and as a child I was a little more of a listener. We often also spent our vacations with my grandmother.
My favorite passage was:“It’s no wonder we can’t understand the grown-ups,” said the Story Girl indignantly, “because we’ve never been grown-up ourselves. But THEY have been children, and I don’t see why they can’t understand us.” I really feel like adults loose that connection to childhood, we try to forget the fun and silly life because we are so overwhelmed with the pressures of adulthood.
In my opinion the main message of The Story Girl is friendship. We need others to help us along this life and despite hardships friendships need to be treasured.
I literally cracked up when Dan yelled at the sermon “don’t you be preaching at me Peter Craig” he knew that sermon was about him!!
Marci Forney says
I have not read all of LMM books, but quite a few of them. I had not read the Story Girl. I did not enjoy this particular book as well as many of the others. I had a difficult time staying interested in what the children were doing. There are definitely some funny moments when the kids get into mischief…but I think that I would like to re-read this book again a little while down the road and see if I find more interest in it. I love Kilmeny of the Orchard very much and look forward to getting to know all of LMM’s works!