Three Willows by Ann Brashares ***

Three Willows by Ann Brashares is the story of friends Polly, Jo, and Ama. These girls have grown apart as they went through middle school and barely keep in touch now that eighth grade has ended. As their summers begin, they all start to realize that nothing is turning out as they planned. Polly has decided to follow in her grandmother’s footsteps and become a model, which means working on her look. She hardly eats at all in order to lose weight. Her mother barely notices because she spends hours at a time in her art studio. While Jo is adjusting to her new job on the beach, she finds out that her parents have decided to separate for the summer. While the news doesn’t come as a shock, it does change the fact that no one will ever be home anymore. This leaves the house alone to Jo, her new friends from work, and her potential boyfriend Zach. Meanwhile, studious Ama has won a scholarship to take courses during the summer as class credit for the upcoming year. When she receives her letter, she expects an invitation to formal classes in an air conditioned library. What she got was a perilous hiking trip that she hates even before she gets there. As their summers start to turn into disasters, Jo, Ama, and Polly realize how much they’ve missed each other and the value of their friendship.

318 pages

~Keira G.
period 2