This summer, I had the chance to read many new great books. One of my absolute favorites was 3 Willows. This is a sweet book about friendship, and how even though people continue to grow and branch off, your roots will always be intertwinded with those who were with you since the beginning. Ama, Polly, and Jo are great friends who met in second grade, running off from the school after waiting for what seemed like hours for their parents to pick them up after school. In third grade, they planted 3 willow trees together, and as they grow, so do their symbolic trees. All three of the girls go through very different struggles the summer after 8th grade, and they began to branch apart.
Ama strives to be as great at academics as her sister, who attends a ivy league school. She is book-smart, but the wilderness is not her strong suit.
After winning a grant after doing great on an academic contest, she was expecting to get to go to a cool class on what she loves, academics. However, she instead gets picked to go to a wilderness expedition camp, which she struggles with.
Polly still acts like the sweet girl they all were when the three were younger. Wanting to act older and fit in, she attends a modeling camp, where she learns a lot about herself, while coping with her mother's alcohol addiction.
Jo spends the summer at her beach house and gets a job as a busboy at a local ressteraunt with a new crowd that she tries to fit in with. As Jo deals with falling in love, being betrayed by her friends, her parents divorce, and the death of her little brother, she realizes who true friends are.
The three realize as they grow apart, you can't get rid of where your roots begin, or untangle them from your past. This heartwarming sweet book is one of my favorites, and Ann Brashares magically tells this beautiful story.
I recommend this book for anyone who loves coming of age stories, or can relate to any of these girls at some point in their lives.
Reviewer: Grade 6
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Anna C.