by Eleanor H. Porter (1927)
How could I have been such a fan of Pollyanna all these years and not read the sequel until now? I’ll admit that upon reading the short blurb on the back of this book, I almost didn’t give it the chance it deserved. Like Jimmy Bean initially felt, I just didn’t want Pollyanna to grow up. Her charming and unconscious optimism wouldn’t be quite the same coming from an adult. Needless to say though, the book did not disappoint, and I am rather glad I read it.
The book begins with Pollyanna still as a child, only she is on a stay with a family in Boston, where her Pollyanna ways spread to new friends. The book then does an abrupt 6-year fast forward midway through the book after Pollyanna’s long stay in Germany with her Aunt Polly and Dr. Chilton. Their circumstances have changed quite a lot by the time they return. Pollyanna, now 20, reconnects with her Boston friends and the Pendletons as she tries to figure out her new life.
After a bit of dramatic confusion, the book comes together like a perfect puzzle at the end, a bit unrealistically, but sweet, nonetheless.
Will I be rereading this one? Definitely. Maybe not as often as the first, but it’s surely worth revisiting.