The Secret Garden

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggins (1903)

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is a children’s novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin, published in 1903. Rebecca is also an orphan whose journey involves acclimating to a new way of life with family members.

• Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm on SuperSummary

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1905)

Sara Crewe in A Little Princess appears to be a perfect little girl, but she is profoundly tested by hardship, and her outward perfection is transformed into inner strength.

• A Little Princess on SuperSummary

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maude Montgomery (1908)

Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables is similar to the ideal girl in that she finds ways to be joyful, but unlike Pollyanna and Rebecca, she has also endured hardship and shows a much greater range of emotions from deep woe to great delight. As such, she is a much more real and complex person.

• Anne of Green Gables on Super Summary

Pollyanna by Ellen H Porter (1913)

• Following the death of her minister father, 11-year-old orphan Pollyanna Whittier leaves the Western town she grew up in to go East to Beldingsville, Vermont, to live with her deceased mother’s sister, Polly Harrington.