". . . there is something about everything that you can be glad about, if you keep hunting long enough to find it. ” When Pollyanna Whittier’ s father dies she is sent to live with her Aunt Polly in Beldingsville in Vermont. A clash of personalities ensues as Pollyanna’ s sunny disposition sits ill with her aunt’ s need for quiet, her passion for shutting windows and her obsession with quietly shut doors. The key to Pollyanna’ s happiness is The Glad Game. No matter how dark the situation it is always possible to find something to be glad about. A bread and milk supper in the kitchen is greeted with rapture; a puritan attic bedroom with sparse furnishing is seen as valued for its rapturous views - better than any decoration could ever be. As Pollyanna becomes acquainted with other inhabitants of the town, her infectious personality continues to spread: one by one, the cantankerous residents fall victim to her charms: Mrs Snow and Mr Pendleton being the hardest cases to crack. However, the arrival of a motor car in town heralds a tragic change in Pollyanna’ s life which not even Pollyanna looks likely to be able to overcome. A timeless classic that has spawned many spin-off novels, films and television serials and truly entered the folklore and consciousness - 'Pollyanna’ is now a byword for, sometimes naïve, optimists. With this new edition Hesperus hopes to bring the tale to a new generation.
