In the already-saccharine genre of "unwanted little girl transforms the life of well-known curmudgeon" literature, Pollyanna stands out as possibly the MOST saccharine.

I said possibly. There are a lot of candidates for the throne, after all. But good grief. It's hard to even imagine anything more twee, if people at the turn of the century could do twee.

The glad game swamps the ENTIRE book. The entire book is just Pollyanna explaining the glad game to sixteen different neighbors. Then the author blatantly handwaves a mysterious accident for the pathos, milks the pathos shamelessly, and uses it to simultaneously untangle the star-crossed love of both Pollyanna's aunt's AND her mother's old beaus. AND THEN handwaves the miraculous cure, while deigning to discuss zero medical facts the entire time.

The whole thing is a bold, bold move.

It's an easy read, and yes I will be back again many more times I'm sure. Quality-wise I want to give this three stars, but here I am, re-reading it for the bazillionth time and I had a blast yet again. So what is the truth?

Almost every other "unwanted girl vs. curmudgeon" genre book offers deeper content, but there is certainly something uniquely enjoyable about this one.