Before she arrived at Green Gables, young Anne Shirley had a difficult early life. Orphaned as a baby, she is sent from one foster home to the next, caring for other people's children even though she is child herself, and escaping from her dark reality through the power of her vivid imagination. Curious, inventive and outspoken, even at a young age, Anne battles to make a life for herself by searching out kindred spirits, finding solace in her books and dreaming of the day she has a family of her own.

Budge Wilson's story of Anne's early life in foster homes and an orphanage in Nova Scotia explains how Anne became such a vibrant and imaginative little girl, despite her destitute upbringing.

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