Customer Reviews

Pollyanna (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (Puffin Classics)

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

The story of Pollyanna, the girl of gladness or as later called in the beautifully done anime series from 1986, the girl of love, is a tale of pure wonder that will stay within you forever. This book is for children and grown-ups, for anyone will find the simple beauty of this book, followed by a sequel that was just as wonderful.

After her father's death, the newly-orphaned ten-year-old Pollyanna moves to Beldingsville to live with her strict and dutiful Aunt Polly. In this great new house Pollyanna is at first kept sleeping up in the attic room, for Aunt Polly feels that that is enough for her to accomplish her 'duty.' If not for Old Tom and good, kind house-keeper Nancy, Pollyanna's stay would have been very dull indeed. Although she never realized it, Pollyanna has a great talent, a great gift for gladness. Just by talking she manages to bring life and joy into the lives of her loved ones, and everyone Pollyanna knows is a 'loved one' as she sees it. Little Pollyanna is one day sent to visit the old invalid woman, Mrs. Snow, her illness keeping her in a gloomy room under old bed-sheets. Mrs. Snow is unhappy and hopeless, but soon Pollyanna cheers the woman up with her usual gladness that seems to be very contagious.

At a very young age, Pollyanna was taught by her father a little game, today known as the 'Glad Game.' Being poor and depending on charities to keep alive, Pollyanna and her father received barrels containing supplies and needed things. Pollyanna had wished that one of these would contain a pretty doll, which never arrived, a pair of crutches arrived instead. Pollyanna had naturally cried, but her father told her that she could be 'glad' that she didn't 'need' them, and that's when the game of finding a silver lining in every cloud began.
The 'Glad Game' was soon known to everyone in the town, from the cross Mr. John Pendelton to the "trying-hard-ter-learn-ter-play-it" Nancy. Everyone that is, except for good Aunt Polly. For reasons unknown to Pollyanna, Aunt Polly had forbidden the mentioning of her late father and for this, Pollyanna cannot let her know of the game, since Pollyanna is known for taking everything literally.
However, very dark clouds surround the town of Bendinsville when little Pollyanna is hit by a speeding automobile and loses her ability to walk, so dark these clouds are, that not even Pollyanna knows how she'll be able to find a silver lining in them. I shall write no more, for the rest is for the reader to discover.

Pollyanna may at first be accused of having similarities to 'Anne of Green Gables' and maybe even 'Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm,' but those will only last during the first few chapters, "Pollyanna" soon changes into a very original (And quite interesting) novel. This book is anything but dull, as a previous reader and reviewer had stated, and you simply cannot make such a remark after only having read "the first few chapters." Pollyanna will delight its readers, but its whole wonder cannot be lived until the wonderful sequel, "Pollyanna Grows Up" is read as well. It's true, when you meet Pollyanna, imagining her all grown up is hard, but although she grew older, she never did really change.

This book so effected me as a child, to this day, many many years later the phrase, "If you look for the good, you will find it" still serves as a valuable reminder for how we can effect our realitiy with our personal perspectives. This little girl, Pollyanna, teaches other children how to play the glad game in a wonderful and engaging story. Too few children today, know how to recognize or be happy. They haven't learned the "glass is half full" thinking. This book is a great spiritual guide, without trying to be one. Please read it and discuss it with your child. You'll both be happier. Thanks.

I first read this book more than twenty years ago and recently found my thoughts returning to it as I pondered what's available today for my own daughter. Pollyanna is simple by today's standards, but contains the kind of genuine optimism and morality that our children sorely need. Author Eleanor Porter passed away in 1920 after writing a couple of sequels, but the remainder of the books in the series--there are eleven altogether, most out of print--are treasures. Your child will enjoy reading about the excitement of Pollyanna's adventures in such different times (in Pollyanna's Western Adventure, Pollyanna's is one of the first families with a "radio set") and you can enjoy the discussions that ensue as your child asks for explanations of life in the teens and twenties. If you enjoyed the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, you will love these. Classic american childhood fare.

I enjoyed this book. Pollyanna's happiness WITH life as well as with LIVING life should be a lesson to us all. There isn't enough happiness in this world... therefore, we should not criticize those who lend their happiness to us. I think that we are too jaded with corruptness and evil that we find it hard to believe when others can turn rain clouds inside out and look for the silver lining. Pollyanna is a classic that should be read by all generations!

I am a mother and Grandmother ( seven children and eleven Grandchildren) I think Eleanor Porter should have an extra star in her crown in heaven for her splended writings of Pollanna and for the insperation other authors gained by her work. ( I read the series a friend of mine had when I was a young girl) That was many years ago. I am sixty nine years old now and I have been searching for many years for all the Pollyanna books to give to my daughters and granddaughters. Now with my PC I have been able to find what I had looked for so many years. I hesitate to think what kind of person would not like or gain from her books. I am "glad" that I can find things in my daily life to be " glad "about. Carrie

I loved this book and I recommend it to anyone between the ages of 8 and 12. You can really get stuck in this book and it was VERY hard for me to put it down. A regular tear-jerker near the end, but altogether one of the best books I have ever read.

This book right away reminded me of Anne from Anne of Green Gables. Pollyanna too is inventing new games and she loves to talk too. Pollyanna comes up with a wonderful game to find someting wonderful in everything. She's always cheerful and find life a big game. It's a great book and you just have to read it. This book captures you right away and sweeps you into the world of Pollyanna. You are left, too, with the feeling of wanting to find something good in everything in life...

When I started to read Pollyanna,I feared it would be a mushy tearjerker. It isn't.Of course it is sentimental and can reduce you to tears, but what is wrong with that. Apart from the tears there is also a grim. almost satyrical sense of humour, considerable depth and a lot of sound psychology. The portrayal of turn-of-the-century philanthropy is scathing. Pollyanna is not naive. She knows there is pain and suffering, in fact she knows all about it. She may be an angel, but she is a very shrewd angel with a real grasp of the power of her own goodness.This makes the book really funny in a way that only a really thoughtfull book can be. If you can take some Victorian semtimentalisms for granted and if you are not a cynic, you should read it, whatever your age. And if you are a cynic you may never know how much you need to read this.

This book was very entertaining. I love Pollyanna's charecter. I think the book is even better than the movie! Pollyanna is about a girl and her adventures in a little town. She moved in with her aunt Polly. Read Pollyanna! It's a great book!

Polyanna's optimism is not "imbalanced" - she does nothing more than try to find a silver lining behind every dark cloud. The very point is that life is full of inequities. Its all too easy to feel bad; certainly everyone has problems, and some people have real reasons to be miserable. Regardless of one's situation, one can feel better by finding the good points, even if they are contrived, rather than dwelling on the bad points. Improving your own outlook directly affects quality of life, including that of those around you. I'd say Pollyanna is rather more balanced than most people, because she does not allow herself to indulge in self-pity and depression so much as others might. Its an important lesson about coping with life in general.