Anne of Green Gables

This book is just a feel-good story of growing up for about 85% of it, and then it goes 0-60 in the span of two chapters to cover death and friendship in a way that blew my mind when I was 10 and still does today. Perhaps those final chapters are short and quick in their covering of events, but to me they paint a very clear picture of their idea, and I find it quite a compelling outlook. There's an argument to be made that summarizing them into 2 chapters counteracts what could've been a more extended piece on either, but I think that giving the reader time to understand the characters means that the death of one or reconciliation of two others has all of the necessary groundwork to convey emotional weight. Ms. Montgomery could've spent chapters dissecting the grief or joy of her characters, but the simplicity of description, and what words it brings out in characters we are very familiar with by this point does more work and delivers more of an impact than almost any other book I've read.

Sure, it's not packed with fascinating philosophical concepts. But what it does have is a beautiful illustration of the way simple people live and die and love. I think that's valuable.