Gen Y-er On The Loose: Judging By The Covers: Anne Of Green Gables

When you're a book that has been around for over a hundred years, has been popular all over the world, and has been translated into multiple languages, of course you're going to have a whole bunch of different covers. Anne Of Green Gables is no exception.

Creating an Anne Of Green Gables cover shouldn't be too difficult. When your book title includes a character's name, well, feature that character! Have her doing something she does in the book! There are many things to choose from, here: Writing, cooking, picking flowers, breaking slates over people's heads....

Or... sitting on the ground by the train tracks.

Just kidding. Don't do that. At least give her some shingles or a bench to sit on.

In the interest of time, I'm not going to post every AOGG cover I could find. But I am going to feature the 3 worst (in my opinion), as well as the 10 best... and a few runners-up. If you know of a good one I missed, post it in the comments.

WORST

Simply put: Anne wasn't a blonde bombshell. This cover got a ton of backlash, for good reason.

Matthew's definitely rocking the Torgo look. Is that the buggy's window behind them, or a full moon? RUN, ANNE! RUN!!!

Did you see those photos going around the internet of the family who had their family pictures "photoshopped" by a not-so-professional photographer so that they looked like they had clay faces?

They could totally stick this Anne into the background of those photos and no one would even notice.

BEST

Cute, colorful, flowery... Anne's got her red braids... all is right with the world.

Colorful and fun... I would definitely have grabbed this off the library shelf as a kid.

Okay, her skirt is way too short for the time period, buuut... if you were to trim off the bottom inch of the cover, it'd be perfect.

In case it isn't obvious yet, I'm a big fan of "pretty" covers.

So pretty. Okay, so Anne is totally ripping off Madeline's look, but still...

This is from the 100th Anniversary edition, and this art/this Anne was all over Prince Edward Island when I was there in 2008. It's a nice illustration, with a happy Anne, and with Marilla and Matthew in the background. Very pleasant indeed.

Another one that's just beautiful!

This is from... not sure... the 40s, I would guess. And it's Anne in the later chapters of the book, if anything. And sure, she looks a little bit like Nancy Drew. But I still like it.

Yep, again with the colorful and gorgeous. Okay, so they forgot to give Anne braids (and she's carrying the carpet bag, so she should have braids at this moment), and -- eek -- those bare legs and peeking petticoat! Still, points for the design.

Anne is doing a neat "blend into the wallpaper" trick, but everything else seems to be on point: red hair, braids, skinny, flower in hair, holding a book. Lovely.

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