Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

By Kate Douglas Wiggin

Copyright 1903

This copy published 1910

On Christmas Day in 1922, Lucille Kaufman received this book from Florence.  Ninety-five years later, I read it and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I hope Lucille did too!  It looks well-read, yet in good shape for its age, so I’m thinking she loved this book enough to read it over and over and took very good care of it.

I hadn’t read Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm before, and was surprised at how it instantly reminded me of Anne of Green Gables, which was written just a few years after this.  

Rebecca Randall is sent at the age of 11 to live with her two spinster aunts.  Her family is quite poor and she is one of seven children, so she is sent to where she can be fed, clothed, and educated properly.  One aunt is strictly no-nonsense and the other is softer and more affected by Rebecca’s spunk and imagination.  But as the years go by, neither of the aunts nor anyone else in town is left unaffected by Rebecca.  Plain of face, yet full of charm and imagination, Rebecca brings joy to all she meets.  

Reading this book provided a pleasant escape and a fresh perspective.  Rebecca was poor and plain and she knew it.  Yet those facts didn’t negatively affect her outlook on life one bit.  The lack of outward beauty and riches didn’t stop her from achieving love, success, or admiration.  Spunk and imagination are much more admirable and worthwhile than wealth or beauty ever will be!