Very good read, with a tad of too much spiritual weight put into a woman's dreams.
Plot
Rilla is the youngest of Anne Shirley Blythe's children, but unlike the others, she shows no signs of ambition or a want to do anything but dress up and go to parties. Her strongest wish is to be noticed by handsome Kenneth Ford, the son of Owen and Leslie Ford. But all this changes when World War I suddenly looms on the horizon and shakes Rilla's world to bits. Her brothers and friends leave to fight, and Rilla takes up the Red Cross with her mother and sisters to help the war effort. Will Rilla ever see her brothers come back from the battlefield alive?
Morality
Good is mostly good; bad is mostly bad. Mrs. Blythe disapproves of Rilla buying a fancy hat on a whim when many men and boys are suffering on the battlefield. As in most of the other books of this series, there is some flippancy shown toward the church and ministers; but, as it is set against the sober background of the first world war, this is not as prevalent as it is in, say, Anne of Green Gables itself. Miss Cornelia still holds a strong disdain for Methodists.
Spiritual Content
Mr. and Mrs. Blythe hold to the Christian faith. One of the Blythe's friends, Gertrude, has strange dreams at times, predicting in odd ways the outcome of the war. Sometimes the family puts too much credence into these dreams. Again, some of the women in the village make fun of their ministers on rare occasions.
Violence
Some descriptions of battle and warfare.
Drug and Alcohol Content
None.
Sexual Content
Rilla is kissed once.
Crude or Profane Language or Content
None.
Conclusion
Rilla of Ingleside is a fantastic book. It is very sad, though, and it has some very gray moods throughout the book; it reflects the world that was in the early 1900s. I would not recommend it for anyone younger that 11 or 12. But overall it has many good parts, and it shows that there is hardship in the world and that there are proper ways of dealing with it in a Godly fashion.
