SOURCE: Weiss-Town, Janet. “Sexism Down on the Farm? Anne of Green Gables.” Children's Literature Association Quarterly 11, no. 1 (spring 1986): 12-15.

In the following essay, Weiss-Town argues against the classification of Anne of Green Gables as a sexist book meant to teach girls how to be proper women.

A municipal draftsperson by trade, an interior designer by education, and a student of children's literature by interest and inclination, I am quite honestly impressed by the essays and ideas of writers such as Alan Garner and Virginia Hamilton, or educators and literary scholars such as Perry Nodelman and Carol Gay, that appear in the Quarterly. I learn a great deal from them. But sometimes I learn more from the articles and opinions that impress me less than they annoy me. It is in disagreeing with an idea that I'm forced to think about it in greater depth, particularly when the idea...