Rainbow Valley

or

He looked exactly like a great black tomcat, that he did. I could never abide such a man in the pulpit every Sunday.

Rainbow Valley (#7/1919) was originally published after Anne's House of Dreams. At the opening of this book, the Ingleside children are all older and more interesting. Even better, there is a fresh bunch of characters that are, without exception, thoroughly enjoyable. Glen St. Mary has gotten a new minister, John Meredith, a widower with four young children. He is a highly special minister but an absent-minded man and father, and his children run wild. But of course they're golden at heart and somehow all of their misdeeds are hilarious and spring from honest intentions. They become best friends with the Blythe children, etc. Rainbow Valley has lots of little adventures, but it also has a larger story that threads throughout and deepens the experience for the reader. The Merediths become just as important as the Blythes have been - indeed, they play the larger role in this book. The central conflict centers on John Meredith and his slow struggle with being a better father and recovering from the death of his wife. Montgomery also hints at what is to come, as these children come of age on the eve of WWI. Judging by the publication dates, she wrote this book as the war was ending, and then Rilla of Ingleside after the war was over. Rainbow Valley simultaneously grounds and enshrines just what all the young men will be fighting for when they enlist in a few years' time. Montgomery's dedication reads:

To the memory of Goldwin Lapp, Robert Brookes, and Morley Shier, who made the supreme sacrifice that the happy valleys of their home land might be kept sacred from the ravage of the invader.