Pollyanna

Pollyanna

by Eleanor H. Porter (1913)

 

  Miss Polly Harrington knows her "duty". Cold-hearted, and bitter at disappointments of the past, the last thing she wants is for the quiet order of her house to be disrupted. But when her estranged brother-in-law dies, leaving his daughter an orphan, the woman consents to raise the child out of a sense of "duty".  

  When eleven-year-old Pollyanna Whittier arrives in Beldingsville to live with her Aunt Polly, neither her aunt, nor any of the other inhabitants of the town know what to think of the bubbly child. Pollyanna soon turns the community upside-down with her "glad game", and before long the entire town is playing it with her. Pollyanna's grateful perspective sees punishments as special privileges, old quarrels are forgiven, and frowning people rediscover their smiles. 

  But when an unspeakable trial befalls Pollyanna, will she find the courage to keep playing "the game?"    

 Character Lessons:

 Thankfulness, Joy, Compassion.

Elements for Parental Consideration:

"Gorry" (2); "drat" (3); "plague take"; "by Jinks" (2); queer=odd (16+); "land" (2); "mercy"; "my stars and stockings" (2); "upon my soul" (2); "if that don't beat the Dutch"; "Honest Injun"; "confounded".

 *mention of "lovers" (as in a courting couple)

 *mention of a "skeleton in the closet" (which Pollyanna takes literally)

                                                                                                                     

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