New Year, New Books #7: Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin

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First, let me say that I only read this version of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm because I’m behind on my New Year’s resolution of reading more books for a million reasons and I knew I could easily mark this off my list. This is an illustrated, children’s version with only 240 pages, of which, half are pictures so I finished it in an hour. I know it’s cheating but every book I’ve picked so far this year has not been completely brainless reading. (To be fair, this is partly my fault because I tend to stop and look up anything I don’t know when reading. Pictures of flowers, British slang, architectural designs, medical procedures and more. I love knowledge so if there’s something I don’t recognize I just have to find out!)

Now, I had always heard of Rebecca as one of those classics of literature but I had never considered reading the book. This was a mistake on my part. Rebecca is a lovable character along the lines of Anne Shirley or Jo March which is high praise indeed! Her adventures and the cast of characters around her are just as relatable in 2019 as they were 116 years ago.

As far as this version goes, it reads much like a Wikipedia synopsis sprinkled with dialogue. It gives an overview of what happens without the in depth descriptions. It actually reminds me of reading a screenplay versus reading a book. I can't comment yet on the actual writing style of Wiggin’s original work and I know that I am very particular about the flow of my novels, however, I will say that since reading this version I plan on picking up a copy of the original book to read at some point and I look forward to reliving all of Rebecca’s adventures in depth!

(Amazon)