Anne of Green Gables is a book by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery, first published in 1908. It is the first in the Anne of Green Gables series that Montgomery wrote. Considered a classic children's novel, the book is set in the late nineteenth-century, and tells the story of Anne Shirley, an 11-year-old girl who has been orphaned. She is sent to live with Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert, unmarried siblings in their fifties and sixties who run a farm (Green Gables). The siblings had requested a boy, but by mistake Anne is sent to them, and while at first, Marilla is adamant that she must be returned to the orphanage, she soon changes her mind. The story follows Anne from her struggles and joys at settling into Green Gables, to her schooling, and through to her gaining a scholarship at the age of seventeen. However, events occur that lead Anne having to make some difficult decisions.