Search - 3 Willows: The Sisterhood Grows

Brashares decided to branch out from Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and create a new sisterhood of sorts. This sisterhood only has three members Ama, Polly and Jo. In this book Ama, the braniac of the bunch, is awarded a scholarship to attend a program at one of the local universities over the summer but to her horror is assigned to go to a wilderness camp. Polly decides she wants to be a model (even though she is not the “model” type) and Jo decides to stay with her mom on the beach and takes a job at a local beach café after her mom and dad split up. While there she meets and older boy and has to vie for his affections after his old flame (Effie, younger sister of Lena from the SOTP series) shows up to work there again.

I was a little concerned that when I started reading this that the author would have basically the same characters as the original sisterhood but have given them all different names. I was pleasantly surprised because the characters of this new sisterhood stood on their own and didn’t remind me of the original girls at all. I’m not sure if I liked the character names though. When I read Ama in my mind I kept seeing Anna. I like the individual story lines of each of the girls and I think the author did a good job of showing how people who grow know each other for most of their lives can still reach that point where they grow apart a little bit. I know I have friendships like that-still friends but we all went our individual ways.
I think the only thing I didn’t like was the cameos from some of the SOTP characters, namely Effie. I didn’t like her in the other novels and I didn’t like her in this one. I can see that the author was maybe trying to do a passing of the torch type thing but I think the book could have stood by itself without bringing the old characters back.

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.

Cute story. Not as great as the sisterhood of the traveling pants series but still very cute. I like how Ann Brashares interjected some of the characters from the sisterhood books into this story.