About 150 years ago, joyful moments for a clever girl in rural P.E.I. included playing with barn cats, roaming the orchard, picking berries, reading books, and, especially, telling stories. She Was the Story Girl: How L. M. Montgomery Learned to Never Give Up! is an illustrated biography that reveals how this famous writer, whose childhood was full of loss and loneliness, overcame obstacles and became a writer.

Organizing the content chronologically, Joann Hamilton-Barry presents 24 short chapters focusing on actions (e.g., “Listening,” “Observing,” and “Dreaming”), often linked to Montgomery’s growth as a writer. Like Anne, in Anne of Green Gables, Montgomery’s imagination brings her comfort. In the “Pretending” chapter, Montgomery chats with imaginary friends – in reality, her own reflection. Some sidebars point out how experiences from Montgomery’s early years were inspiration for storylines and character traits in her fiction. Throughout the book, details abound. Knowing that Montgomery made up silly words like “terrificable” is heartwarming, while the discovery that she burned her earliest diaries feels like a tragic loss for readers and archivists alike.

Saint John–based Hamilton-Barry uses humorous anecdotes to offset the unhappier themes, including delightful quotes from Montgomery’s memoir The Alpine Path: The Story of My Career, which are often snippets of positive self-talk, encouraging perseverance. For example, regarding her first publication, grown-up Montgomery recalls it “was the first sweet bubble on the cup of success and of course it intoxicated me.”

One quibble is the book’s lapse in historical accuracy in the “Remembering” chapter: it explains how Montgomery saw her cousins infrequently because “they lived twenty kilometres away,” and “it took almost a whole day to get there by horse and buggy.” A journey of this distance would have taken about two hours.

East Coast artist Leah Boudreau’s colourful, folksy style is a perfect fit with the text. The book cover, which features a thoughtful girl on a hillside by the sea, speaks of “Anne” in every way – except her braided hair is brown. This shows, yet again, the striking ways in which real-life Montgomery and imaginary Anne intersect.

This sweet, entertaining chapter book combines Montgomery’s insights with familiar Green Gables moments. It’s sure to be a winner with aspiring novelists who understand the value in a vivid imagination.