Pollyanna (version 4)

The book that gave the English language a word for dangerous optimism. When eleven-year-old Pollyanna is orphaned, her wealthy Aunt Polly reluctantly takes her in, expecting a proper, quiet household. Instead, she gets a girl who plays "the glad game" - finding something to be grateful for in every misfortune. At first, the residents of Harrington's Landing think she's simply odd. But her relentless cheerfulness begins to work peculiar transformations: the grumpy neighbor, the repressed spinster, the disabled boy all find themselves softened by her strange philosophy. The book works because Porter understands something true about joy as rebellion. In a world designed to break you, Pollyanna insists on being glad anyway. It's a children's book that secretly argues for the radical possibility of choosing your own weather. It endures because we still need to believe that kindness can change the world, even when - especially when - the world doesn't deserve it.