Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert, a brother and sister living together in West Philadelphia, take in a foster child, Anne Shirley — a black teenage girl, and their first time taking in a girl her age. Anne Shirley is in search of an exciting life, trying to find her place in the world, and wants West Philly to be the place she finds herself. She finds a new friends in neighborhood girl Diana Barry, argues with classmate Gilbert Blythe, falls in love for the first time, and finds her niche in robotics studies and tech — but in the process of their year together, finds just how much she cares for her foster parents and they her.
Also compare Anne An Adaptation for another modern-set adaptation of the same book, and the other two books considered part of the Classic Graphic Remix by Little, Brown and Company (modern, Race Lifted retellings of classic children's literature): Meg Jo Beth And Amy and The Secret Garden On81st Street.
Anne of West Philly contains examples of:
- Adaptation Deviation:
- Unlike the original novel, Matthew and Marilla have taken in foster children before, who were all younger boys. They also know that Anne is a girl from the start, rather than being surprised that she's a girl when Matthew goes to fetch her. They only bring up having a boy as a worry when Anne's exuberance surprises them to start, but immediately recant when she overhears them mention it.
- Because they don't live on a farm, Matthew works as an English professor at Temple University. "Farming" is limited to his having an interest in gardening.
- Anne's late parents both died when she was in elementary school instead of when she was an infant, so she has memories of them.
- Instead of a Sunday school picnic, Anne attends a robotics club summer picnic.
- Gilbert doesn't call Anne "Carrots", but he does pull on her hair the first day of school. There's no slate, so Anne just hits him open handed for it.
- The mix-up that results in Diana getting accidentally drunk (and later sick) is liquor-filled cherry cordial chocolates mistaken for regular chocolate truffles instead of currant wine mistaken for raspberry cordial (soda).
- Minne May, Diana's little sister, only sprains her ankle instead of getting croup.
- Anne wants to have an ugly sweater for a winter concert rather than a fashionable puffed-sleeve dress. This also reverses the idea: instead of trying to be in something nice, Anne is trying to wear something ugly on purpose, but it's still fashion.
- Diana's dad isn't present; it's her, her mom, and her little sister.
- Anne, instead of trying to dye her hair, ruins it trying to cut it watching online videos. Marilla still has to cut it to correct it, but she shaves the damaged side into a fashionable side cut that looks good on Anne.
- Anne is not nearly as much of a Drama Queen as in the originals; she's more Book Smart and has interest in robotics and technology, while Diana instead takes up theatre.
- Adaptational Diversity: Along with the Race Lift of the characters, many characters are changed to different races and Anne's neighborhood and middle school is diverse. Anne also later shows feelings for Diana, but she doesn't confess them to her.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Notably averted. Anne is Race Lifted to a black teenager, but still has naturally red hair.
- Adaptational Job Change: Matthew is a professor at Temple University instead of a farmer.
- Adaptational Hairstyle Change: Anne still has her red hair but being black, it's now of a kinky texture and both she and Marilla wear sleeping bonnets to protect their hair.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Marilla is a lot more kind to Anne from the start and accepting, and willing to defend her from others without hesitation and comfort her.
- Adaptational Romance Downgrade: Gilbert and Anne do not have a romantic relationship. Gilbert confesses he likes her at the end of the robotics competition, but she says she likes someone else and they agree to be Just Friends. At Diana's play later, he sees the way Anne looks at Diana and realizes who she does like.
- Adaptational Sexuality: When Gilbert Blythe confesses his feelings to Anne, she nervously lets him know she likes someone else and they decide to just be friends. It's later implied that her crush is on Diana, which is later confirmed when Gilbert asks her if she's told Diana. (She doesn't confess her feelings by the end of the book, so it's left as an open-ended situation.)
- Adaptational Timespan Change: The book takes place over a little more than a year, where the original took place over about five years.
- Age Lift: Anne starts off in eighth grade instead of as an eleven year old girl. Diana, Josie, and Gilbert are aged up as well with her.
- Chekhov's Skill: After Muriel Stacy takes over as the new special subject teacher, she has the students code a Raspberry Pi to blink lights for artistic purposes; Anne and Gilbert are successful in making an image of a house blink. Later for the winter concert where they have to wear ugly sweaters, Anne secretly cuts up her sweater to integrate blinking lights into it — impressing many people in the audience as well as Marilla.
- Demoted to Extra: The only major classmates that stand out in Anne's grade are her, Gilbert, and Diana. While Ruby, Josie, and Jane are present, they're reduced to very minor characters.
- Foreshadowing: Matthew has a chest pain while he and Anne are out in the fall gathering pumpkins and cider, foreshadowing his heart attack; he put off checkups for financial reasons. Unlike the original, he lives.
- Girlish Pigtails: Anne wears these during the day (and a sleeping bonnet at night) until she has to have her hair cut from her attempt to do it herself.
- Happily Adopted: Unlike the original where Anne is adopted at the start, here she's legally adopted by Matthew and Marilla near the end.
- Mythology Gag:
- Anne, when renaming the alleyway behind the house, initially uses the "White Way of Delight" as a name before she settles on the more simple "outdoor art gallery."
- The chocolates Anne mistakes for regular truffles and Diana gets Unsuspectingly Soused on are cherry cordials — a nod to the currant wine and the cordial from the original book, as in the 2020s "cordial" is used to refer to liquor instead of a homemade fancy drink.
- The advanced STEM high school that Anne and Gilbert apply to is Queen's Academy.
- Parental Abandonment: Anne's parents died years ago. Unlike the original and many adaptions, she was old enough to remember them as she was in elementary school when they passed.
- The Pollyanna: ZigZagged. Anne initially says she does her best to look on the brighter side of things and insists that it's better to stay positive because if she gets too sad about her past, she'll always be sad. This is even when casually talking about the awful things she's been through before staying with Matthew and Marilla. However as she becomes closer to them, she admits her vulnerabilities and sadness at being bounced from home to home and accused of the worse as a foster kid.
- Race Lift:
- Marilla, Matthew, and Anne are all black in this adaptation, as is Anne's classmate Jane.
- Diana Barry and Gilbert Blythe are Ambiguously Brown. Anne and Diana's classmate Ruby is also.
- Setting Update: The book is moved from the fictional Avonlea on Prince Edward Island in Canada to West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and also updated to the Present Day of 2022. This also means that rather than a farm, the Cuthberts and Anne live in the city — but they do live in a Victorian style home.
- Skipping School: Anne casually mentions to Marilla while they're grocery shopping together the first time that at the last place she stayed, she was expected to stay home from school if one of the babies in the group home was sick. Since this is a modern adaptation, Marilla is horrified she was forced to skip school for such a reason.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Unlike the original book where Matthew dies suddenly of a shock, here he survives his Foreshadowed heart attack because Anne quickly calls an ambulance and he's able to get medical attention.
- The Stations of the Canon: Many of the major events of the original Anne of Green Gables are hit: Anne's arrival and surprising the Cuthberts with her personality, angrily insulting Marilla's friend Rachel, meeting Diana and their becoming fast friends, (and later causing an incident where Diana gets Unsuspectingly Soused and Diana's mother blames Anne and doesn't want them to spend time together), her initial dislike of Gilbert their first day of school, and damaging her hair trying to make it appear different. The book even has Matthew have a heart attack. He survives because of Anne's quick call to 911.
- Unadoptable Orphan: Anne casually mentions that since her parents died when she was in elementary, she's been bouncing around ever since and hasn't found a permanent home, and she expects she'll eventually have to move on from Marilla and Matthew. At the end, Marilla and Matthew legally adopt her as their own.
- Unsuspectingly Soused: Anne accidentally serves Diana cherry cordial chocolates instead of regular chocolate truffles during their tea. Diana eats several when Anne doesn't (as she's suspicious of the smell immediately) and ends up sick; when her mother picks her up, she angrily says that Diana reeks of alcohol and Diana replies by throwing up in front of her. Diana's mother is furious and forbids Anne from spending time around Diana, accusing her of getting Diana drunk on purpose.
- YouTuber Apology Parody: Anne, when told to apologize for losing Marilla's amethyst brooch (even though she didn't), looks up online for an idea of how to make a good apology. She comes across several apology videos and ends up making a false story about how she was attacked by a group of older girls and threw it in a fountain to hide it. She even makes the mistake of saying she's sorry for letting "you guys" down, which makes Marilla skeptical.
