3 Willows: The Sisterhood Grows [NOOK Book]

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Overview

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 ...
See more details below

Overview

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.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble
Author Ann Brashares has created a snug-fitting yet comfortable follow-up to her Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants ensemble. 3 Willows introduces us to Polly, Jo, and Ama, a trio of young ladies juggling summer jobs, friendships, adventures, and even a touch of romance and flirtation.
Publishers Weekly

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.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From The Critics
After four summers with the sisterhood of the traveling pants, Brashares introduces us to the next generation of best friends whose lives are linked not by pants, but by willow trees. Polly, Ama, and Jo have just finished eighth grade when they find themselves dealing with a new job, an unexpected adventure, and complicated family circumstances. Separated for most of the summer, the three become distant only to be pulled back together by tragedy. Younger readers who enjoyed Brashares's previous novels will enjoy this one as well. Their story is told from three different points of view, and Brashares includes observations about willow trees as a device for setting up each section. Although 3 Willows seems to have been marketed as part of the original series (and the previous characters make cameos in the story), this novel can stand on its own and is undoubtedly destined to have a sequel. Reviewer: Jacqueline Bach

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780385738132
  • Publisher: Random House Children's Books
  • Publication date: 1/13/2009
  • Sold by: Random House
  • Format: eBook
  • Pages: 336
  • Sales rank: 76,814
  • Age range: 12 - 15 Years
  • Series: Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Series, #5
  • File size: 5 MB
  • Items ship to U.S, APO/FPO and U.S. Protectorate addresses.

Meet the Author

Ann Brashares
Ann Brashares
Ann Brashares is the author of the young adult novels The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The Second Summer of the Sisterhood, Girls in Pants, and Forever in Blue. This is her first novel for adults.

Read an Excerpt

Meet Jo
So this is the last summer before high school. I'm spending it at my family's beach house. Except there isn't much family, there, really. Just my mom and me. My dad decided to stay in Bethesda and work this summer. He's a doctor. A top surgeon. After my older brother, Finn, died before I started fifth grade, he got a lot busier at the hospital. We don't talk about Finn much. Ever, really. Actually we don't talk much at all as a family. That's probably why my parents are going to get a divorce. My dad is probably going to date all the pretty young nurses at his hospital. All a trial separation will prove is that we're all separated already.My friend Bryn helped me get a job as a bus girl at the Surfside, this big crab house in Rehoboth Beach, where our house is. There are some cool people from my school working here. It's one of the few places you can get a job when you're fourteen. I kind of started hanging out with some new people in seventh grade. Bryn and Kylie and Marie. It's not that I don't like Ama and Polly, but...it's just that I want to be popular in high school, and I'm not so sure about them.One of the girls from the Sisterhood, Bridget Vreeland, was a coach at my soccer camp after sixth grade. She was so cool. It made me think that being a teenager would be like that. You know, like having amazing friends and the Traveling Pants. But when I look at my old friends-Polly, with her skipping and weird doodles, and Ama, who can never do anything fun because she's too busy doing extra credit math problems-I know that is not going to happen.I'd kind of like things to be different when I'm a freshman. I even did something crazy already -- I kissed this gorgeous boy and I don't even know his name. Ama would be horrified. But Bryn wouldn't. She would think it was exciting.So maybe being a teenager will be cool after all. I guess I'll see what this summer brings. Meet Ama
Everything is changing. Next year I'll be in high school. People change and places change. There's no time to look back, really. There's a lot to look ahead to.My family moved to the United States from Ghana because my parents wanted my older sister, Esi, to go to the best possible college. And she did. She's at Princeton Pre-med.Esi is extremely smart. She won a summer study grant from the Student Leader Foundation four years in a row. Only 200 people get them in the country. No one has received one since. Except me, now. Summer school at Andover (with my friend Grace) was my first choice. I didn't get it. Or my second. Or my third. I'm going on a program called Wild Adventures in Wyoming. It's so wrong for me. But I have to do it. It goes on my school record. My parents would never let me drop it.Esi. School. My parents.You could say I'm under a lot of pressure.I also have a little brother named Bob. He's five. My parents gave him the most American name they could think of. It's kind of funny.My friends, like Jo and Polly, aren't really as focused on school as I am. That's why I've been spending more time with people like Grace, kids on the honor roll crowd (the grade-grubbers, as Jo calls them). But there's nothing wrong with choosing to do academic projects with kids who want to succeed like I do, is there? Jo or Polly aren't serious enough about their work.I'd heard about the Sisterhood when I was in 6th grade. It sounded amazing, to have these friends that were always there for you. A lot of people tried to be like them. Polly and Jo and I shared a pair of jeans, and then a denim skirt, and then a jean jacket, and then a scarf. That was kind of lame when I think about it.I hope this summer works out okay.But I'm not expecting much. Chapter Excerpt
The last day of school was a half-day. Tomorrow the entire eighth grade would pile back into the gym for the graduation ceremony, but that was just for an hour and their families would be there. The next time Ama went to school, it would be high school.Everything is changing, Ama thought.Usually she took the bus home, but today she felt like walking, she wasn't sure why. She wasn't sentimental. She was purposeful and forward- looking, like her older sister. But it was an aimless time of day, and she wasn't hauling her usual twenty pounds of textbooks, binders, and notebooks. Today she felt like treading the familiar steps she'd walked so many times when she was younger, when she was never in a hurry.She couldn't help thinking about Polly and Jo as she walked, so when she saw them up ahead, waiting at the light to cross East-West Highway, it almost felt like they appeared out of her memory.Ama was surprised to see Polly and Jo together. From this long view, she was struck by the naturalness of the way they stood together and at the same time, the strain. She doubted they had started off from school together. These days Jo usually left school with her noisy and flirting group of friends to go to the Tastee Diner or to the bagel place around the corner. Polly went her own way- taking forever to pack up her stuff and often spending time at the library before heading home. Ama sometimes saw Polly at the library and they sat together out of habit. But unlike Ama, Polly wasn't there to do her homework. Polly read everything in the library except what was assigned.As Ama got closer, she considered how little Jo looked like she used to in elementary school. Her braces were off, her glasses were gone, and she devotedly wore whatever the current marker for popularity was-at the moment, pastel plaid shorts and her hair in two braids. Ama considered how much Polly, in her long frayed shorts and her dark newsboy cap, looked the same as she always had."Ama! Hey!" Polly saw her first. She was waving excitedly. The walk sign illuminated and Ama hurried to catch up to them so they could cross the highway together. "I can't believe you're here," Polly said, looking from Ama to Jo. "This is historic." "It's on her way home," Jo pointed out, not seeming to want to acknowledge the significance of the three of them walking home together on this day.Ama understood how Jo felt. The history of their friendship was like a brimming and moody pond under a smooth surface of ice, and she didn't want to crack it.As they walked they talked about final exams and graduation plans. Nobody said anything as they passed the 7-Eleven or even as they approached the old turn.What if we turned? Ama suddenly wondered. What if they ran down the old hill, past the playground, and stepped into the woods to see the little trees they had planted so long ago? What if they held hands and ran as fast as they could?But the three of them passed the old turn, heads and eyes forward. Only Polly seemed to glance back for a moment. Anyway, even if they did turn, Ama knew it wouldn't be the same. The creaky metal merry-go-round would be rusted, the swing set abandoned. The trees might not even be there anymore. It had been so long since they'd tended to them.Ama pictured her younger self, running down the hill with her two best friends, out of control and exhilarated. It was different now. People changed and places changed. They were going into high school. This was no time for looking back. Ama couldn't even picture the trees. She couldn't remember the name of the hill anymore.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating 4
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  • Posted December 19, 2008

    more from this reviewer

    Reviewed by Sarah Bean the Green Bean Teen Queen for TeensReadToo.com

    The Sisterhood may be grown up, but their legend lives on.

    Meet Polly, Jo, and Ama, three girls who are now entering the very same high school the legendary Sisterhood attended. The three have been friends since third grade, but now with high school approaching, they find themselves being drawn in separate ways and spending the summer apart.

    Ama is all about academics, extra credit, and schoolwork. She's signed up to spend the summer at a camp that will give her school credit. She's hoping to be in the library all day, but instead finds herself signed up for the outdoor wilderness hike. Ama is not an outdoorsy girl and can't imagine herself spending the summer hiking and sleeping in a tent.

    Jo is spending the summer at her family beach house and working as a bus girl at a local restaurant. She's hoping to make friends with the older girls from the "in" crowd so she can start high school in the right group. But a fling with a mysterious boy threatens to change all of Jo's plans.

    Polly is stuck at home babysitting until she gets the idea that she could be a model. She throws herself into the world of modeling camp and starts to lose herself - and only her friends can help bring her back.

    One of Ann Brashares strengths is that she puts so much into her characters that readers can always find someone like them. The experiences the girls have never seem over the top or unrealistic, and their friendship will resonate with readers making the transition from middle school to high school.

    Although reminiscent of THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS series, Polly, Ama, and Jo each bring something new to the story - and their stories are original. Fans will enjoy the appearances made by characters from the previous series, as well.

    3 WILLOWS is a great pick for readers looking for a wonderful, charming book about the challenges of friendship and growing up.

    5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted March 30, 2009

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    Mixed Feelings

    I do not think that this book was as good as the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, however, it was a fun read. It is about 3 friends who grow up in the same town. As they grow up, they change as people, which causes their friendship to also change. I think that it's a great story about true friends, and I enjoyed the reference to the original sisterhood. I thought that the book was a litte slow starting out, but it got better and I found myself not wanting to put it down.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted October 30, 2008

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    A Great New Beginning reviewed by YABOOKNERD

    Polly, Jo, and Ama just graduated eight grade. Now with summer looming before them, they're not sure how far high school will separate them. They used to be best friends, before they each started going in different directions. But this summer, they are still tied to each other. Their bonds haven't been broken yet. Polly starts a modeling class with her babysitting money. She wants to become someone, someone that people notice. But is modeling for her, or is she walking down a dangerous path? Jo's spending the summer with her mother at the beach. Her parents are trying a separation and she's not sure what to think. It's not like her dad's been around much these past few years. She's got herself a job at a restaurant and soon she's hanging out with high school girls. Could they be her ticket to the in crowd next year? Ama's spending the summer in a scholarship program. She was hoping for an academic track, but instead, she's spending her days hiking through the wilderness. She's not an adventurous sort of girl and this summer is killing her. In their times of troubles, each girl reverts back to her old friendships and wonder how weak their bond has become. If one of them reaches out, will the other two catch her?

    This new book by Ann Brashares takes place in the same town as the Sisterhood. These three girls don't know the Sisterhood, but they worship the girls just the same. The book has similar connections with the Sisterhood books, but it's completely different at the same time. They both center on friendship, but there's a different tone to the new book. The Sisterhood books took their friendship and made it stronger during the time apart. The 3 Willows found their way back to friendship after spending time apart. The new book is also younger and perfect for middle schoolers. I breezed through this book and am eager for the next one...there is going to be one I hope.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted December 27, 2011

    LOVE IT

    Ann Brashares is a very gifted author! In this book, she uses realistic situations and makes them magic. I,ve always loved this book.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted December 22, 2011

    This book was great

    I think this book inspire young readers to be the best they can be I beleve Ann has done it again

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  • Posted March 22, 2011

    ehh

    looks good i might buy it

    0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted February 21, 2011

    luv it!

    this is one of my all time favorite books i would recommend it to everyone

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  • Posted February 5, 2011

    Quick read

    I enjoyed this book a lot. It was cool that the Traveling Pants girls were mentioned.

    0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted January 28, 2011

    Very very good

    i reallyy liked this book it was very good!!!!!!!!

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  • Posted November 2, 2009

    more from this reviewer

    Very nice read - don't have to read the Traveling Pants to enjoy this!

    Ok, I will admit it. I have never read the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I've seen the movie, and I guess I thought that if I read the book then I wouldn't enjoy it as much.

    So, when my friend lent me 3 Willows, the first question to come out of my mouth was "Do I have to read The Sisterhood to understand this?" And the answer is nope. You don't need to read the original Sisterhood to fall in love with Ann Brashares novel.

    3 Willows takes you into a slightly younger world, to three girls who are - no secrets - growing apart. However, they don't exactly want to face the facts. They still, somehow, want to stay close forever.

    Heartwarming novel, fast read, nice read. Hope you enjoy as much as I did.

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  • Posted October 27, 2009

    I Also Recommend:

    New story

    When I heard about this new book, Brashares had written. I got really excited. I have read all of her past books and enjoyed them. I knew this was a new story and new sisterhood.
    Three new friends, Polly, Jo and Ama, figure out if their friendshihp is worth it, as they are on their new journey to highschool.

    Jo, is worried that she won't fit in with her new friends she has at her new job in a restaurant, so she's trying to pull away from her old friends. While her parents are in progress of a possible divorce. After the death of her brother. During this summer she'll try to find out what she wants in life.

    After being send to an enrichment program during the summer, Ama, considers being imperfect. When she doesn't get things she wants, she finds herself upset and frustrated. She also has trouble with her new roommate, who Ama thinks likes her crush.

    Polly tries to find out who she is, and what she wants to be. While on the other hand, her mother is having problems with alcohol. She finds herself lost, but helps her mom get through her problems.

    This book is well-written. I enjoyed reading this, and recommend this book to anyone, who is lost in finding true friendship. You will learn that true friends are hard to find and will stand by you no matter what.

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  • Posted September 5, 2009

    more from this reviewer

    3 Willows

    For those who liked Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, this was a fun easy read that takes one back to their childhood and childhood friendships. Brashares does a great job chroniciling these teen girls's journey into high school. I would recommend this to many of my mom friends who have teen age girls and to the teen girls. This would be a great movie. For a lazy afternoon or reading at the beach. I liked the willow references since I like nature.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted June 26, 2009

    REALLY GREAT!

    I loved this book. It was cool how they look up to the sisterhood. It is a great book to share with friends.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted June 1, 2009

    I Also Recommend:

    Fast Read

    I really liked this book. It took me little time to read once i got about 90 pages in. It was a good story, set in the summer, telling about three friends who had drifted apart. During this summer, though, they come back together when they need each other most. Romance, family problems, and even some rock climbing adventure, this book has it all.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 16, 2009

    Book was good.

    I really liked this book, and it came in on time :)

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  • Posted April 27, 2009

    A story of friendships

    This book is by the same author as "Traveling Pants" group and I liked those. I enjoyed the 3 different characters in "3 Willows". I bought the book for my teen granddaughter and she read it and said it was okay. It didn't have enough suspense for her.

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  • Posted April 17, 2009

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    AWESOME!

    These girls are like any girl you could find in the world! They could be so real! I love this book!

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  • Posted April 17, 2009

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    I Also Recommend:

    Great Read

    3 Willows by Ann Brashres is a book that tells us about the lives of three girls; Polly, Jo, and Ama. They used to be best friends but as time went on they grew apart. The summer before high school will change this all. Polly wants to be a model. She is changing her self for the bad, even though she thinks it's for the good. Jo is spending her summer at the beach working as a bus girl. She begins to fit in and then an incident ruins it all. Ama is at her summer scholarship program, trying to find out how to survive the stupid camp. She finds out who she is along the way. The girls also find that they will be friends no matter what happens. I enjoyed how Brashres made the Sisterhood a legend in this book. It is kind of like it will never die. 3 Willows is a book that most teenage girls would probably read. Brashres will not disappoint any readers with this new book. Those who loved the Sisterhood will love this. I thought this book was very good. I hope she writes a follow up but she shouldn't make it exactly like the Sisterhood. The characters in this book are nothing like the ones in the Sisterhood. Read this book! You will love it. You will not want to put it down.

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  • Posted April 11, 2009

    I Also Recommend:

    3 Willows was so good!

    Ann Brashares has done it again! I absolutely loved this book! The story follows the format of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, switching from each girl's point of view. I thought the scenarios she created were something refreshing and new. I also liked how she incorporated the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants into her story because I'm a huge fan of the series! Great book, five stars hands down! =)

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  • Posted April 6, 2009

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    An okay book

    I was a bit dissaponted in this book. I thought it was going to be as good as the sisterhood of the traveling pants but it wasnt. It was an okay book. Not the worst book ive ever read but not the best one either. This is a book you shouldnt buy but you should check it out of the library. It had some interesting things in it dont get me wrong. If there is a sequel i would read it.

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