Pollyanna

Eleven-year-old Pollyanna Whittier, the orphaned daughter of a poor minister, comes to live with her rich, stern aunt Polly in a small Vermont town. Her father taught her the 'glad game': whatever happens, look for something to be glad about, as when she hoped for a doll from the missionary barrel and received crutches instead, and was glad that she did not need them. Pollyanna plays the game with everyone, the sour invalid Mrs Snow, the lonely recluse John Pendleton, the discouraged minister, and slowly changes the whole town, until an accident puts her own gladness to the test.

Eleanor H. Porter (1868–1920) published the novel in 1913, and it was so popular that 'Pollyanna' became an English word for a person who is always optimistic. It is a gentle book about the power of kindness. It belongs on the same shelf as Anne of Green Gables and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.