Pollyanna, with eBook recap

After her father's death, eleven-year-old Pollyanna Whittier goes to live with her stern Aunt Polly in a Vermont town. Pollyanna meets every disappointment with the glad game her father taught her: finding some ground for gratitude in an unwanted situation. Her openness gradually changes the people around her, including invalid Mrs. Snow, lonely John Pendleton, homeless Jimmy Bean, and a discouraged minister. Aunt Polly also grows attached to her niece, though she resists showing it. When a motorcar strikes Pollyanna and a spinal injury leaves her unable to walk, she can no longer play the game. Townspeople reveal how much her example helped them, restoring her sense of purpose. Aunt Polly sets aside an old estrangement from Dr. Chilton so he can connect Pollyanna with a specialist, and Polly and Chilton marry. Pendleton gives Jimmy a home. After treatment, Pollyanna writes that she has begun walking again and is joyfully preparing to return to her enlarged family.

After the death of her missionary father, eleven-year-old Pollyanna Whittier is sent to Beldingsville to live with her wealthy Aunt Polly Harrington. Miss Polly accepts the child as a duty and orders her maid Nancy to prepare a bare attic room, keeping the more comfortable rooms untouched. Pollyanna arrives expecting affection and meets every disappointment with energetic gratitude. She explains the glad game her father taught her: when a charity barrel contained crutches instead of the doll she wanted, he helped her be glad she did not need them. Pollyanna applies the same practice to the hot attic, the missing picture of her mother, and Aunt Polly's rigid schedule. Nancy and Old Tom are won over, while Miss Polly is unsettled by a child who receives discipline as another opportunity for happiness.

Aunt Polly assigns charitable visits as part of Pollyanna's duty. Pollyanna meets John Pendleton, a solitary rich man who initially rejects conversation, but her steady friendliness makes him begin to expect her greetings. She also visits Mrs. Snow, an invalid accustomed to concentrating on her ailments. Rather than choosing which complaint Mrs. Snow should discuss, Pollyanna searches for changes the woman can enjoy and encourages an interest in colorful objects and small activities. At home, Pollyanna's refusal to feel punished continues to frustrate Aunt Polly, yet the child's warmth is quietly altering the household. Nancy learns the glad game and begins to see that Pollyanna's cheerfulness is a practiced response to difficulty, not ignorance of it.

Pollyanna befriends Jimmy Bean, an orphan who has left an institution and wants a real home. She brings him to Aunt Polly, who refuses to adopt him, and then appeals unsuccessfully to the Ladies' Aid. While walking in Pendleton Woods, Pollyanna finds John Pendleton injured after a fall and summons Dr. Chilton, whose treatment saves him from remaining helpless outdoors. Pollyanna later visits Pendleton during his recovery. The stern recluse has become attached to her presence and listens to her talk about Jimmy and her own family. Dr. Chilton is friendly to Pollyanna, but Nancy's reaction suggests a hidden history between him and Aunt Polly.

John Pendleton asks Pollyanna to come live with him, explaining that her presence has brought warmth into his empty house. Pollyanna mistakenly believes he once loved Aunt Polly and hopes the adoption might reunite them. She refuses his offer because she wants to remain with her aunt, and she is disappointed to learn that the woman Pendleton loved was actually her late mother. Pendleton will not adopt Jimmy as a substitute, insisting that it is Pollyanna he wants. Meanwhile Pollyanna notices growing changes throughout town: Mrs. Snow takes interest in making things for others, Pendleton's manner softens, and people who once avoided one another respond to her direct concern. Aunt Polly, though still formal, has become protective of her niece and increasingly sensitive to any suggestion that Pollyanna might leave.

Pollyanna meets Reverend Paul Ford when he is discouraged by quarrels in his congregation. Her account of her father's search for the Bible's many joyful passages leads him to rethink his preaching and his relations with parishioners. Soon afterward a motorcar strikes Pollyanna as she crosses the road. At first she is grateful simply to be alive, but the local doctors discover that her legs are paralyzed by a spinal injury. Aunt Polly's restraint breaks under the crisis, revealing how deeply she loves the child. Because Pollyanna has always delighted in movement, the prospect that she may never walk again presents a hardship for which she cannot find a glad answer.

Specialists give Aunt Polly little reason to expect that Pollyanna will walk again. The child becomes despondent, and Nancy tells people that the glad game has failed its inventor when she needs it most. News of the accident spreads. Mrs. Snow, Reverend Ford, John Pendleton, and many others send messages or come to explain the concrete changes Pollyanna inspired in their lives. Hearing that her game helped so many people gives Pollyanna something to value despite her injury. Jimmy brings news that he may have found a home, while Dr. Chilton remains excluded from the Harrington house because of his long estrangement from Aunt Polly. His knowledge could help, but reconciliation requires Polly to set aside years of pride and misunderstanding.

Jimmy helps bring Dr. Chilton's possible solution to Aunt Polly's attention: Chilton knows a specialist whose treatment may offer Pollyanna a chance to recover. Polly finally admits that her old feelings for Chilton remain and allows him back into her life. Their reconciliation gives Pollyanna both medical help and the loving family connection she has wanted for her aunt. Polly and Chilton marry, making him Pollyanna's uncle. John Pendleton takes Jimmy into his home, so Jimmy also gains a family. Pollyanna is sent away for treatment. In her final letter she reports that she has walked several steps and expects continued improvement. She now feels grateful for the period when she could not walk because it taught her to appreciate the ability, and she anticipates returning home.

The specialist consulted about Pollyanna's spinal injury offers no immediate hope, and the child's inability to find anything glad about her paralysis shakes the entire town. People she helped visit or send messages explaining how her game changed them; learning that her influence mattered gives Pollyanna a reason for gratitude even while she remains unable to walk. Dr. Chilton knows of a surgeon who may be able to help, but Aunt Polly's old quarrel with him has kept him from the house. Polly overcomes her pride, admits that she still loves Chilton, and allows him to arrange treatment. Polly and Chilton reconcile and marry. John Pendleton takes Jimmy Bean into his home, giving the boy the family he wanted. In a final letter from a hospital, Pollyanna reports that she has taken several steps and expects to improve. She is glad even for the months of disability because they taught her what walking means, and she looks forward to returning home to Aunt Polly and her new uncle.