First published in 1921, ‘Rilla of Ingleside’ is the eighth of nine books in the Anne of Green Gables series by Lucy Maud Montgomery, but was the sixth ‘Anne’ novel in publication order. It centres on fourteen-year-old Rilla Blythe during World War I, known then as the ‘Great War’.
Anne’s children were almost grown up, except for pretty, high-spirited Rilla. No one could resist her bright hazel eyes and dazzling smile. Rilla, almost fifteen, can’t think any further ahead than going to her very first dance at the Four Winds lighthouse and getting her first kiss from handsome Kenneth Ford. But undreamed-of challenges await the irrepressible Rilla when the world of Ingleside becomes endangered by a far-off war. Her brothers go off to fight, and Rilla brings home an orphaned newborn in a soup tureen. She is swept into a drama that tests her courage and leaves her changed forever.