3 Willows: The Sisterhood Grows by Ann Brashares

Polly, Jo, and Ama have been friends since the first grade, until this past year when they started to drift apart. While they are headed different directions for the summer, the girls discover the importance and strength of their friendship.

Brashares follows the formula established in her bestselling Traveling Pants series and has created a new cast of likeable teenage girls to capture reader’s hearts. Polly, Jo, and Ama are extremely different, but like the legendary Sisterhood, the girls have a valuable friendship that withstands the strains placed upon it by family drama, peer pressures and the pains of growing up. Brashares has created a trio of girls that are easy to relate to and readers will have no problems seeing parts of themselves in them. Each girl’s story is original but blends together in the way only the lives of best friends can. The willow metaphor was slightly overdone and the connections to the original sisterhood detract from the new girls stories. Also, Polly’s flirtations with an eating disorder are never addressed or recognized by any adult.