Polly

A New-Fashioned Girl

by L. T. Meade

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Pages: 191

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About this book

A hot July afternoon finds Polly crouching in the grass, intent on catching two thrushes. Her delight gives way to alarm when her brothers announce a new baby and tell her that Helen is crying. L. T. Meade's children's novel introduces an energetic girl within a large English family, where affection and grief sit close together and everyday excitement can turn suddenly serious.

At Sleepy Hollow, the Maybright children later prepare a glowing welcome for two young visitors. Polly invents stories about the strangers before they arrive, while her little sister Firefly worries that they will claim Polly's affection. The guests, Flower and David, bring their own experience of losing a mother. These scenes give readers a family story attentive to sibling jealousy, imaginative play and the small gestures that reassure a child who wants to be loved.

About the author

L. T. Meade

L. T. Meade was the pen name of Elizabeth Thomasina Meade Smith (died 1914), a prolific Anglo-Irish author of the Victorian and Edwardian periods. Best known in her own day for girls' school stories, she was also a pioneer of popular mystery and detective fiction, devising early female sleuths and criminal masterminds such as Madame Sara.