Ah, the the ultimate Heartwarming Orphan tale! Many of us know Pollyanna Whittier for her saccharine sweetness and undying optimism... for her "Glad Game" and for melting the hearts of all the town grumps. What we may have forgotten is that she also happens to be a clueless innocent with only a mere scrap of a verbal filter, so she ends up saying a lot of hilariously horrifying things. But no matter, everyone loves her. And by everyone, I mean five or six people, though as the book begins to draw to a close, we learn that, oh ACTUALLY, Pollyanna hung out with about fifty people the book forgot to mention until just now, thank you.

David Swift and Walt Disney did an amazing job adapting this book for the big screen, and I honestly prefer the film to the book, but there's enough here to keep me entertained. Characters showing up out of the blue notwithstanding, the writing is solid and well-paced. The Nancy character does that annoying but seemingly true-to-the-time-period thing where she repeats phrases ("I am, I am! I do, I do!" See also: The Secret Garden) but nearly everyone else is palatable.

Also hilarious is the author's clear disdain of "motor cars," which apparently are self-driving and just go around mowing down small children for sport. Ah, to be alive in 1911.