(Half a) Story Hour - Episode 10
Episode 10, “Anne of Green Gables: We Keep Reading Chapter Three”
Anne is finally at Green Gables, where she continues to surprise Marilla Cuthbert - even drawing out Marilla’s long-disused smile…
Tough stuff in this episode: orphan experience, slavery, gender roles, bones
⭐️ Bonus ⭐️
Follow along here: Anne of Green Gables
Vocabulary: of late years, abundance, matron, hastily, meekly, scalloped, despair, kitchen chamber, spiritlessly, fearsomely, skimpy, wistfully, whitewashed walls, pincushion, six by eight mirror, muslin, washstand, apartment, rigidity, marrow
(Inter)active reading: Visualise, make connections
For teachers: Sketch a picture of the east gable room where Anne is going to spend the night (it doesn’t have to be a good picture, but take your time). Try to get the layout as it’s described in the book… ✏️🎨
Discussion question: What can we infer (guess based on the evidence) about Marilla Cuthbert from the way she keeps her house, and especially the way the east gable room seems to Anne? How would you describe Marilla? What other hints have we got to support your inferences (educated guesses)? 💬
Musical interlude: “Fossils” from Le Carnaval des animaux by Camille Saint-Saëns 🦴
Other Stuff…
Here are a few of the shapes and objects mentioned in today’s episode…
First, a scallop shell: the “scalloped” glass dish holding Marilla’s crab apple preserve would have had edges like this shell’s.
(Image: Bernard Spragg via Wikimedia Commons)
This is a four-poster bed like the one in Anne’s east gable room…
(Image: Kennedy Construction)
…and here is a wash stand and basin in the style of the ones the story describes.
This wash stand and basin from the 1800s are at the Concord Museum in Massachusetts (image: Daderot via Wikimedia Commons).
Pincushion, anyone?
The pincushion in the east gable room was different - made of velvet and not in the shape of a strawberry - but this gives us some idea! (Image: Dvortygirl via Wikimedia Commons)
Easter 🪺: Can you hear some (soft/loud, piano/forte) pedal work from the pianos at the end of “Fossils?” There might be some traffic sounds, too… and don’t forget Camille Saint-Saëns’ Easter eggs in this movement of Le Carnaval des animaux!