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Summary
Summary
summer is a time to grow
seeds
Polly has an idea that she can't stop thinking about, one that involves changing a few things about herself. She's setting her sights on a more glamorous life, but it's going to take all of her focus. At least that way she won't have to watch her friends moving so far ahead.
roots
Jo is spending the summer at her family's beach house, working as a busgirl and bonding with the older, cooler girls she'll see at high school come September. She didn't count on a brief fling with a cute boy changing her entire summer. Or feeling embarrassed by her middle school friends. And she didn't count on her family at all. . .
leaves
Ama is not an outdoorsy girl. She wanted to be at an academic camp, doing research in an air-conditioned library, earning A's. Instead her summer scholarship lands her on a wilderness trip full of flirting teenagers, blisters, impossible hiking trails, and a sad lack of hair products.
It is a new summer. And a new sisterhood. Come grow with them.
Author Notes
Author Ann Brashares grew up in Chevy Chase, Maryland and graduated from the Sidwell Friends School in 1985. She met her husband while studying philosophy at Barnard College, which is part of Columbia University, in New York City. She worked as an editor in the hopes of saving money for graduate school, but she enjoyed her job so much that she continued to do it until she became a full-time author with her first novel, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Since then, she has written five more novels in the popular series; the latest one is entitled, Sisterhood Everlasting. She has also written as her first novel for adults: The Last Summer (of You and Me). In 2005, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was adapted into a movie. She currently lives with her husband and their children in New York.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 7-10-Incoming freshmen at the same high school that the original sisterhood attended, Ama, Jo, and Polly are learning that falling out of friendship is an unfortunate part of growing up. They're spending the summer apart-uprooted-dealing with divorce, unmet expectations, and, of course, boys. Fans of Brashares will likely be thrilled to get their hands on Willows, yet the story falls short of offering the chick-lit genre anything new. Undoubtedly, though, readers will become involved with the girls as they grow their separate ways, ultimately realizing that the roots of their friendship have never really come undone. The sweet (near sappy) novel will find a place on the to-read list of many tweens and teens.-Emily Chornomaz, Brooklyn Public Library, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
With the Traveling Pants series all wrapped up, Brashares introduces a new group of BFFs and addresses a slightly younger crowd. Living in the same town as the semilegendary Sisterhood girls, Ama, Polly and Jo have tried to share a pair of jeans and settled on a joint-property scarf (plus an induction ceremony), but their rituals are "lame," and so, they suspect, is their trio. Only socially backward Polly thinks she'll miss the others when all three disperse the summer before high school. In typical Brashares fashion, each girl faces unexpected tribulations: intellectually ambitious Ama, who is afraid of heights, has won a spot in a prestigious scholarship program-which sends her mountain climbing. Jo, newly told that her parents are divorcing, submerges her feelings in the excitement of being friends with a popular girl and having an older boyfriend-or so she thinks. Polly, sold out by Jo in the pursuit of cool, learns that her single mom is alcoholic. Fans will like the tidiness in the controlling metaphor, willow tree cuttings planted after a third-grade project, and for all the fidelity to formula, Brashares gets her characters' emotions and interactions just right. Ages 12-up. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Middle School) The original Sisterhood is now the stuff of legend; in this fast-paced, readable novel, the story moves on to a new circle of friends, one with a strong past but a shaky present. Ama, Polly, and Jo sealed their friendship in third grade by planting three tiny willow trees together; but by their last year of middle school, the girls have drifted apart. The start of summer finds them awkwardly returning all the items they'd once borrowed, until "what little they'd still had of each other they didn't have anymore." As in the original series, the novel traces a single summer in which each girl experiences her own set of challenges. Bookworm Ama winds up on a wilderness trip, horrified by the prospect of hiking boots and no hair products; Polly, who has outwardly changed least since grade school, develops a dangerous obsession with becoming a model; status-conscious Jo takes a job at a beachside restaurant with the cool high school girls and has a fling with a gorgeous boy that ends in hurt and humiliation. Each girl finds herself longing for the other two and a return to their friendship. The characters are well developed, and their struggles (including more serious family issues of divorce and alcoholism) feel real. The end-of-summer resolution is a satisfying formula for middle-school readers, and a closing visit to the flourishing willow trees promises more to come. From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants has entered college. Now, three younger girls are about to take its place. Jo, Polly and Ama have been friends since childhood, but as high school approaches the three find themselves growing in separate directions. As in the first Traveling Pants book, the girls are spending their first summer apart. Academic Ama is hiking her way to school credit. Sensitive, quirky Polly is at home, saving her money so she can attend modeling school. Jo, newly popular, travels to her family's beach home and works her first summer job. The girls find that their physical distance brings them closer emotionally. A sweetly sentimental narrative combined with story lines of romance and parent drama ensures that like the previous Pants books, this one will travel from girl to girl. At times the characters are difficult to distinguish from one another, and the parallels between the girls' friendship and the willow trees they planted as children go over the top, but that will not detract from the book's popularity. (Fiction. YA) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Brashares begins a new sisterhood series, with occasional cameos from the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants gang. Ama, Jo, and Polly originally met in third grade. Now it's the summer before high school, and they're all dealing with disappointments and difficulties. Ghana-born overachiever Ama is horrified with her assignment to a summer wilderness camp instead of the academic program she was hoping for. Jo is dealing with her parents' separation and the wildly attractive boy at work. Free-spirit Polly is struggling to transform herself into a model through radical dieting and modeling camps. There are glimpses of Tibby and Lena from the Pants series, but readers seeking old friends from the wildly popular series will be disappointed. However, Brashares has created an eminently likable trio of girls that tweens and younger teens will enjoy getting to know, and unlike the last Sisterhood books, there's no sex, just the occasional kiss. Multiple copies are in order for any community where the Sisterhood series is popular.--Carton, Debbie Copyright 2009 Booklist