Pollyanna Grows Up
Free public-domain edition — preview in your browser, no account required for the first chapter.
Preview free · sign up to save progress, download to your shelf, and sync with the apps
Already have an account? Sign in
This uplifting sequel offers a satisfying continuation of Pollyanna's journey, blending romance, family drama, and timeless lessons in resilience and kindness.
Edition details
Book Summary
Pollyanna, now a young woman, brings her infectious optimism to Boston to help the grieving Mrs. Carew. As she navigates love, loss, and social divides, she must also confront her own challenges, including a stern aunt and her evolving feelings for Jimmy Pendleton.
Pollyanna Grows Up follows the beloved optimist as she leaves Beldingsville to stay with Mrs. Carew, a wealthy woman paralyzed by grief over her lost nephew Jamie. Through the Glad Game, Pollyanna slowly opens Mrs. Carew's heart while befriending a lame boy named Jamie in a poor neighborhood, whom she suspects is the missing heir. Meanwhile, Pollyanna's Aunt Polly faces financial ruin and becomes bitter, forcing Pollyanna to care for her and manage the household. Romantic tensions arise as Jimmy Pendleton, Pollyanna's childhood friend, realizes he loves her, but misunderstandings with Jamie and John Pendleton complicate matters. The novel resolves with multiple revelations: Jamie is not Mrs. Carew's nephew, but Jimmy is, and John Pendleton loves Mrs. Carew. Pollyanna and Jimmy finally confess their love, and Aunt Polly accepts their engagement after Jimmy's true identity is revealed. The story celebrates personal growth, the power of optimism, and the importance of family and love.
Reading guide
Go deeper in Pollyanna Grows Up
Character guides, themes, chapter companions — plus Character Web, narrative arc, and theme heatmap teasers that unlock fully beside the text in BetterReads.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book.
Pollyanna Whittier
Pollyanna arrives in Boston practically cured of the injury that once left her unable to walk, but her famous optimism meets its strangest test yet in Mrs. Carew's gloomy mansion. She writes stories that keep coming back rejected, hides the disappointments from her ailing aunt, and finds her glad game turning oddly painful when she plays it for Jamie's sake. Her inability to simply enjoy her own comforts while Jamie lacks them is what quietly begins to thaw Mrs. Carew's frozen heart.
Aunt Polly
Once the stern woman who took in an orphan out of duty, Aunt Polly now depends on Pollyanna far more than she admits, fretting over rainy days, leaking roofs, and letters that arrive too late. She is methodical to the tick of the clock and openly skeptical of gladness on a wet morning, yet her neediness binds Pollyanna's days to the house. Her slow decline is the quiet weight against which Pollyanna's cheerfulness must prove itself, not merely perform.
Jimmy Pendleton
Jimmy has grown from the spirited orphan boy into an anxious young man whose visions of wonderful spans have been replaced by the fear of losing Pollyanna. He resents the unknown Jamie with the too-similar name before ever laying eyes on him, and his jealousy shames him even as it drives him. When he carries Pollyanna from danger in the pasture, he realizes how precious she is, and how much Jamie's watching face may already have cost him.
Jamie Kent
Jamie turns to Pollyanna with a relief he shows no one else, because she alone once knew what it was to be unable to walk. Beneath his gaiety Pollyanna detects a new bitterness, and he avoids the others, sighing with relief when he is alone with her. His dependence on her understanding deepens just as Jimmy's jealousy sharpens, placing Pollyanna at the center of a quiet, unspoken rivalry.
Mrs. Carew
Mrs. Carew has walled herself off from society and charity alike since losing Jamie, refusing her nurse sister's pleas to get interested in something outside her own life. She takes in Pollyanna and finds the child's constant mourning over another Jamie unbearable, snapping that the glad game ought to fix it. Yet the very boy she insists is not her sister's son haunts her with panicky doubts, and her reluctant Christmas generosity is the first sign of a heart reawakening.
John Pendleton
John Pendleton remembers the stern, disagreeable man he was before Pollyanna's childish liking saved him, and he tells her so with a tenderness that visibly alarms her. Having adopted Jimmy, he still insists a child's presence is not enough, and he has made up his mind to have the woman's hand and heart he once lost. His confession lands on Pollyanna as a proposal she never saw coming, and her stammering retreat toward the door is its own small comedy of misreading.
Optimism and The Glad Game
The central theme of the book is Pollyanna's philosophy of finding something to be glad about in every situation, which she calls 'the glad game.' This game is tested throughout the story as Pollyanna faces poverty, loss, and romantic rejection, and she teaches it to others like Mrs. Carew and Jamie as a way to transform their lives.
Social Class and Inequality
The book starkly contrasts the wealth of Mrs. Carew's Commonwealth Avenue home with the poverty of Murphy's Alley, where Jamie lives. Pollyanna struggles with the injustice of some having so much while others have so little, questioning the ethics of charity and the barriers between rich and poor.
Love and Marriage
Romantic love is a major driver of the plot, particularly Pollyanna's relationship with Jimmy Pendleton, which faces opposition from Aunt Polly due to Jimmy's unknown origins. Other relationships, such as John Pendleton's love for Mrs. Carew, also explore themes of compatibility, social standing, and the courage to marry for love.
Family and Belonging
The search for lost family members—especially Mrs. Carew's lost nephew Jamie—is a central thread. The book explores what makes a family, including adoption (Jimmy Pendleton, Jamie Carew), the obligations of blood relatives, and the creation of chosen families through love and care.
Reading tools
BetterReads is more than a book page—e-reader, AI beside the text, audiobooks, and native apps in one system.