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More About This Book

Overview

Polly Greene has always been considered strange, a girl who can see a person’s true colors, a thirteen-year-old more comfortable foraging in the woods with her eccentric grandmother than hanging out with friends. But all that is about to change when Polly’s older sister, Bree, vanishes into the woods. The only one who believes Bree can survive, Polly begins to leave food in the woods for her sister and finds a hidden grove she names Girlwood, where she believes Bree is burning a fire each night. Along with an odd but endearing group of friends, Polly clings to the hope that she can see her sister through the harsh, snowy winter. And, in the process, she discovers the cruelty, bounty, and magic of the woods. Will Polly save her sister? And even if she does, will Girlwood survive?

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Dean's first YA novel feels of-the-moment with its hopeful environmentalist message. At its start, Polly, the earthy, wistful 12-year-old protagonist, wakes up to find her teenage sister, wild child Bree, missing. The search goes on in the background as Polly and her friends fight to keep the bulldozers away from her beloved forest, a magical place where Bree could be hiding. Each chapter opens with a description of a medicinal and edible plant that Polly and her wise grandmother find in those woods. This premise sometimes bogs down with mentions of Bree's clichéd problems. But mostly Dean succeeds in creating a fast-paced story and sympathetic characters that eco-minded readers will appreciate. In their deep woods hideout, called Girlwood, Polly and pals uncover secrets about themselves and their world. "The forest could have been Fairyland... the dawn sky like a field of tulips, the new snow twinkling pink, green, and blue, as if even the ground they walked on was enchanted," Dean writes in a typically lush passage. The best wrought element of the book, though, may not be in the forest at all-it might be the satisfying ending. Ages 12-up. (May)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
KLIATT
Bree and Polly are four years apart in age. It didn't seem to make much of a difference when they were children, but when Bree turns 16, she puts away childish things and turns to boys and drugs—and away from Polly. When Bree's boyfriend dumps her, she declines physically and mentally, and runs away. Polly figures that Bree fled to the woods, although no one saw her. The woods could be dangerous, with wolves and little sustenance. Even so, Polly and her growing circle of friends christen a specific spot as Girlwood, and grow stronger with each other's support. Polly and others help Bree surreptitiously, but a greater danger is a real estate developer's plans to destroy the woods to make room for housing. As a first novel, this semi-fantasy holds up well even if it's a bit pat. At the beginning and a bit throughout the book, shades of faerie emerge. The author also has a passion for auras. Nevertheless, the plot mainly focuses on the characters and their change or growth. It should be noted that some willingness to suspend disbelief is necessary to read the book: how could a 16-year-old never be found for six months, except at the end when she wants to be found—soon to be delivering a baby? With its light-handed treatment of some serious issues, the book's most likely reading audience will be middle school girls. Reviewer: Dr. Lesley Farmer
More Reviews (3) Fewer Reviews
Children's Literature
Polly and her older sister Bree grow up loving the woods under the tutelage of their grandmother, Baba. This connection was one of their few common bonds, and when Bree entered high school, it began to fray. Bree became of the popular girls in school, while Polly continued to feel more comfortable with nature than she did her fellow students. When an unnatural addiction to drugs and the boys who have them begins to consume Bree, Polly is the only witness to Bree's departure into the woods they loved, the sole recipient of her parting words, "I've got to try to be all right." In the wake of her sister's disappearance, Polly must learn to fight for her own preservation. With the help of her grandmother, Baba, she begins a journey to save her sister by saving their woods. Along the way, she and three close friends find a natural haven they name Girlwood. In Girlwood, they figure out ways to save Bree on her journey and end up discovering that Bree, like the woods, has the magic to save herself that all girls hold deep inside. Reviewer: Jennifer Waldrop
School Library Journal

Gr 6-8- Twelve-year-old Polly is beset by trouble in her rural Idaho home. Her parents have divorced, and her punk and probably pregnant older sister, Bree, has run away. Her former friend's father is bulldozing the majestic larch trees of the old forest to "make the woods more accessible" to rich dwellers in a new gated community. But, Polly can see auras; understands the herbal teachings of her New Age grandmother, Baba; and uses her talents as best she can to forestall the inevitable destruction. Believing Bree is hiding in the forest, she leaves offerings throughout the winter. Herbal teachings-some dangerous, with warnings for would-be experimenters-begin each chapter. But Baba uses herbal teas to drug Polly's overwrought mother several times, and with few exceptions, adults behave abominably and stupidly. The natural details may ring true but the stereotypical narrow-mindedness of the rural community is unchallenged and the New Agey tone will put off many readers.-Susan Hepler, formerly at Burgundy Farm Country Day School, Alexandria, VA

Kirkus Reviews
Despite its genuinely gorgeous cover and illustrations, this story and its characters never come to life on the page. Twelve-year-old Polly loves the woods around her Idaho home, where her dad has moved to a cabin and her grandmother Baba gathers wild plants for healing. Polly's older sister Bree, deep into drugs and boys, disappears, and over the winter Polly and Baba leave food and clothing for her in a secluded part of the forest called Girlwood. Polly has a lot to cope with: mean girls at school, her best friend's betrayal, her parents' separation and the developer who plans to bulldoze the forest to build a gated community. There is way too much telling rather than showing and an overabundance of preaching about plant life and ecology, all of it overlaid with Polly's ability, never fully integrated into the story, to see people's auras and the wood fairies of her father's stories. The Lessons are writ large, but the tale itself is a wisp writ small. (Fiction. 12+)

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780618883905
  • Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  • Publication date: 5/19/2008
  • Pages: 256
  • Sales rank: 429,985
  • Age range: 12 years
  • Product dimensions: 5.50 (w) x 7.75 (h) x 0.75 (d)

Meet the Author

Claire Dean writes from a bright green house behind an ever-growing garden in Idaho. She was inspired to write Girlwood for her daughter, who asked for a story about good stuff. "When I asked her what that meant, she said, 'You know, about hope and magic and fairies and girls.' Good stuff, indeed." Next up is a story for the author's son. To learn more about Girlwood and to find out what color aura you have, visit Claire Dean at www.clairedean.net.

Read an Excerpt

The first and last kiss Polly received from her sister was as contrary as Bree herself. Lightweight but intense, a kiss that was supposed to impart some deep meaning but offer zero affection, a kiss that was retracted nearly before it began. It was past midnight, and Polly was not only too tired to open her eyes, she was so sick of her stoned, skeletal, sixteen-year-old sister that she didn’t even acknowledge Bree was there.

It was just like Bree to ruin Polly’s favorite hour, the only time she had left to swim with mermaids or imagine herself flying without Bree asking her if she was having some kind of fit. Polly kept her eyes shut tight and pictured a magical woodland creature instead of her sister, the flutter of a fairy’s kiss instead of Bree’s.

She stuck to this vision, even when the fairy didn’t smell like cedar or honeysuckle but like an unwashed teenager and marijuana smoke. The kiss was even more far-fetched than fairies, if you asked Polly. It had been months since Bree had entered Polly’s room except to steal cash. In fact, Polly couldn’t remember the last time her sister had said anything to her aside from “Shut up” or “Freak” or, when Polly had caught her snorting up a line of white powder, “If you tell Mom, I’ll kill you.”

*** Not too long ago, things had been different. Bree had been the pretty, pampered, delicate one, the blond-haired, blue-eyed doll, and Polly her younger, tougher, dirtier accomplice. The four-year age difference hadn’t seemed so important then, since they both liked to draw and dance and, mostly, play in the woods behind their house. Beneath the solemn pines and flashy cottonwoods, Bree crowned herself princess of the green kingdom and made Polly her woodland fairy—the one who must constantly be on guard to save her sister from dragons, trolls, and other assorted dangers. Polly never minded. She was strong, and Bree was beautiful. They each had their place.

But then Bree turned sixteen, and declared such games pathetic. The new Evil Bree stopped talking to Polly entirely and hid like a mole in her dark bedroom, coming out only when their mom confronted her with the pills she’d found in her coat pocket or when Aaron Sykes showed up. Bree braved daylight for her boyfriend, maybe because Aaron Sykes brought a cloud with him everywhere he went. He wore all black and had a halo of darkness around his head that stretched even farther, a bleakness that gave Polly the creeps. He mumbled and smelled funny, and Polly’s parents said they didn’t trust him, which instantly made Bree love him more.

As soon as she started dating him, Bree began to dress like Aaron, hold her cigarette between her thumb and forefinger the way he did, sample his favorite drugs. It took no time at all to complete her transformation from girl to Aaron’s shadow, as if love wasn’t measured in goodness and devotion but in how much you’d give up for a person, how far you’d sink.

*** At least the bottom came quickly. Three months after they started going out, Aaron dumped Bree for another girl-shadow, and Bree came home in tears. Trembling, inconsolable, Bree became the princess in need of saving again, except that now Polly couldn’t help her anymore, and she didn’t want to. They might have been sisters, but Bree had made it clear they were going it alone.

Polly’s mother said, “Thank God,” but in truth after the breakup things only got worse. Bree may have lost the boyfriend but she kept his bad habits. She still wore black, ditched school, took even riskier drugs, like she was really proving her love now, disintegrating over someone who didn’t even want her. Evil Bree was still pretty as a doll, but the horror-film kind—an inanimate object that comes to life for the sole purpose of destroying everything.

Now the mattress hardly budged as Bree sat on the bed. After Aaron, she had started losing weight. Down, down, down, like Alice through the rabbit hole, until she was a hundred pounds, starting to grow fur like an animal fighting to keep warm, and suddenly popular. Her phone rang day and night; even thugs like Brad Meyer called to ask her out. Now that Bree was bent on destroying herself, she was apparently a girl worth getting to know.

*** “Polly?”

Polly peeked out through half-closed lids when the fairy began to cry. Bree clasped a handful of dandelion stems, their puffy white seeds long gone now that fall had come on. Maybe she’d listened to their grandmother after all and knew that instead of banishing dandelions from the lawn, you could eat the delicious young leaves or cure almost anything with the milky juice in the root.

Polly said nothing. There were no words left except cruel ones, and Polly had said all of those.

“Polly?” the fairy said once more. “You know when you love someone, you think they’ll never hurt you? It’s not true, Polly. When Aarooooon left me, I wished I’d died.”

Polly squeezed her eyes shut again. She wished she could shut her ears, too. She didn’t want to hear this. Didn’t Bree get that? It was like Bree kept dragging her onto a roller coaster she wasn’t tall enough to ride.

Think of fairies, Polly thought. Imagine the one on the bed flying away.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4.5
( 8 )

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Sort by: Showing all of 8 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted April 9, 2008

    A magical coming of age, must read for mothers and daughters

    I couldn't put girlwood down. I am sharing it with my daughter who is almost thirteen. Girlwood touches on so many issues that parents and daughters face such as the push and pull of freedom and the desire for closeness, peer presure, insecurity, accomplishment, love..., It is the perfect book to read together to open up the many conversations that begin now during this most volatile and beautiful time of our lives. Girlwood is real and fanciful. It is empowering and it is beautifully written! Must read for girls coming of age, and the people who love and care for them.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted August 8, 2009

    Loving and Admiring

    Girlwood is about a thirteen-year-old, Polly, who goes looking for her older sister Bree who suddenly disappears without their knowing. Desperate for her sisters return, Polly sets out looking out for sister without her mothers approval.

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  • Posted October 25, 2008

    more from this reviewer

    Reviewed by Allison Fraclose for TeensReadToo.com

    One night, Polly is awakened from a sound sleep to find her older sister, Bree, kissing her. As Bree's blood red aura trails behind her like the tattered wings of a ruined fairy, she tells Polly that she's leaving for the woods, so that she can try to be alright again. Half asleep, and not sure if she's really seeing her emaciated, drugged out sister or an actual fairy, Polly lets her go, with no argument over how much Bree has destroyed since she started using drugs.

    No one believes her when she tells them Bree has run to the woods, so it's up to Polly to provide everything her sister will need. Winter is almost there, and a developer is coming soon to trade out the trees for a housing development. Following the guidance of her grandmother, Baba, Polly knows that she could rely on herself to survive alone in the forest, and, with her help, so can Bree.

    Luckily, Polly finds that she doesn't have to be alone. Others may not be able to see the colorful bands of light around each other that display exactly who they are inside, but they will believe her. Under the protection of the hidden grove that Baba has shown her, Polly and her friends will learn that, with a little magic and a little faith, anything is possible.

    Beautifully written and with vibrant imagery, this book will strike a chord with anyone who has found magic and solace in their own secluded spot of wilderness. The explanations that head each chapter of the different wildflowers and their medicinal uses are also fascinating, as is the descriptions of various auras and what they mean. The back cover states that the author wrote this as a gift for her daughter, and she will be writing one for her son next. I'll be looking forward to reading that.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted July 16, 2008

    A reviewer

    With one foot in the modern world and one foot in a world of fantasy, Claire Dean's Girlwood takes us into the life of Polly Greene, who can see the colors that surround people, revealing their true selves. Polly's older sister, Bree, disappears into the woods one night, and Polly is the only one who believes she has not run far, that she's hiding nearby to heal her out-of-control life. When Polly finds a magical clearing hidden among the trees, she's certain that her sister is close, and she determines to leave her food and clothing and healing plants to help Bree survive until she's ready to return. Girlwood explores many themes as Polly enlists the help of friends and family in her mission: What's the value of nature compared to development? Why do girls sometimes subvert their own personalities when they start to date? How does divorce affect family dynamics? How can parents teach and protect their children while also allowing them to have independent thoughts? The themes are woven into a story that is as enchanting as the magical clearing, Girlwood, itself. And by the end, you may even find yourself searching for your own Girlwood.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 6, 2008

    Girlwood

    This my favorite book of all time! If you love nature, you have to read this. A great story for girls--powerful, uplifting, and filled with the magic of the woods. A must-read!

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  • Anonymous

    Posted April 2, 2008

    Great Story

    I do not usually read books but this book caught my attention. I love the outdoors and I have a daughter who likes high fashion and her cell phone. I really enjoyed the book! I now understand my daughters pleas to stay up later to read. I found myself doing the same thing with this book. I ended up reading it in just two days. I really enjoyed the book especially the grandmother Baba with her natural ways of doing things. My daughter read the book too and found it equally entertaining. I thought this book would give her a different perspective and it did. It was nice that my daughter and I could share something magical in such modern times. I recommend this book to everybody, it has a great message.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 1, 2008

    Girlwood

    Girlwood is the story of Polly, a 13-year-old girl whose sister has run away. While everyone else gives up hope that Polly's sister is alive, Polly and her grandmother believe she is in the woods somewhere. While leaving food and supplies in the forest for her sister to find, Polly and her friends find their own special 'Girlwood' a magical place where wolves prowl and fairies live. Every chapter begins with a different plant, and how to use it either as food or medicine. This is a beautiful story of hope, strength, and the magic of nature.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted August 2, 2009

    No text was provided for this review.

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