I read this start to finish in one sitting and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was only afterwards as I thought about it that I felt vaguely unsatisfied, as though it had all been wrapped up a little too neatly. Still, a lovely book. If you like Anne of Green Gables, you will probably like Pollyanna as well.

Pollyana adalah anak yatim piatu yang tinggal di rumah tantenya. Polly menjadi begitu optimis dan positif memandang suatu hal berkat permainan tongkat yang diajarkan ayahnya. Permainan tongkat ini sebenarnya semacam melihat sisi positif dari suatu hal yang kita dapatkan yang sebenarnya tidak kita inginkan. Kadang kugemas dengan Polly, kadang kukesal karena dia tidak berhenti bicara, tapi ternyata Polly menyebarkan semangat positif di lingkungan rumahnya. Sampai ia kecelakaan, kakinya patah, dan ia menjadi gadis pesimis. Permainan tongkat itu kemudian dimainkan kembali oleh Polly dan tantenya, akhirnya, Polly dibawa ke balai rehabilitasi dan bisa kembali berjalan.

I admit - although I’ve been called Pollyanna before (and not in a very nice way), I had never read this book. I’m so glad that in my quest to read more classics, I chose this one.

Pollyanna has had a touch life - a poor orphan, sent to live with an aunt she has never met who takes her solely because it is her duty. But before he passed, she and her father had played “the glad game” where no matter what happened, they found something to make them glad. When Pollyanna moves in with her aunt, she has many more people to whom to teach the game.

What she does is transform the town with simple gratitude.

Actually I listened to an audiobook on Librivox. The reader was The Story girl. She's really expressive and it's very easy to follow the narration. As for Pollyanna it's a children's classic and we just can't help falling in love with this "little lamb" and learn to be "glad" about life.

Did not finish ebook 28%

When did I first read Pollyanna? I couldn't say. This little book is a perennial favorite. It's been a few years since I picked it up and this time I found that my memory had deceived me again. What you remember is a story about a girl who wants everyone to be glad, and who gets a happy ending at last. What you get is a story about an orphaned girl sent to a loveless home who reaches out to the troubled people of a small town, resulting in a wide variety of pathetic tales of woe and loss. Pollyanna's insistently cheerful nature is clouded by the fact that each time she plays the infamous "glad game" it is bitter reminder of the harsh life she lived, and the loss of her beloved father. Those people who have only seen the Haley Mills version of the movie might be surprised by the pathos embedded in this story. It is needed, however, in order to balance out the sometimes saccharine nature of a story about a little girl who reminds a whole town what it is to be glad.

Book number 50 for the year! I wanted to read this after reading Hayley Mills' memoir. It was okay. I have a hard time reading not correct English, so reading when the servants talked was rough. I would not have liked that reading it as a child either. Also, Pollyanna was just annoying. She would not stop talking and had no couth about her. This is one that the movie just might be better.

"I'm a-wonderin' what Miss Polly will do with a child in the house."
"Humph! I'm a-wonderin' what a child will do with Miss Polly in the house!"

"It's funny how dogs and cats know the insides of folks better than other folks do, isn't it?"

"He said if God took the trouble to tell us eight hundred times to be glad and rejoice, He must want us to do it-SOME."

Such a good short book, it teaches you to look for the best in every situation.