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3 Willows

(2009, Fiction - Friendship, Written by Ann Brashares)

  • Is it age appropriate?

    About our ratings

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    Not age appropriate for kids under 11, age appropriate for kids over 14; suggested age 12.

  • Is it any good?

    4.0

  • Common Sense says

    Brashares' novel charms even without magical pants.

Why We Rated This iffy for Ages 12–14

The good stuff

  • Messages:

    Polly eats 15 cookies and feels "like she was going to barf." She tells herself that is not behavior for a wannabe model "unless she actually barfed on purpose." She goes to modeling camp and starts skipping meals so she loses a lot of weight. "She felt empty and small, and she liked that feeling." She keeps worrying about how she looks. In the end, however, she decides that "She was never going to be a model ... To want it was the same as hating herself. That was the truth." Polly works hard as a baby-sitter. Jo is mean to Polly and says hurtful things. Jo's parents go through a divorce. Polly notes that the thong underwear Jo convinced her to wear with leggings "was not comfortable, no matter what anybody said." Jo is excited to stay alone overnight at her house without a curfew. She invites her co-workers over to her empty house without her parents' permission. Her co-workers ignore her after she upsets one of the cool waitresses. The book ultimately has several positive social messages about being a good friend and staying true to oneself.
 

What to watch out for

  • Violence:

    Not an issue.

  • Sex:

    Not an issue.

  • Language:

    "Hell," "bitch."

  • Consumerism:

    A few mentions of specific Ivy League colleges and brand names such as Seven, iPod, 7-Eleven, Slurpee, and Kiehl's hair creme.

  • Drinking, drugs, & smoking:

    Jo tries to get her older co-workers to come over to her empty house by telling them "the liquor cabinet is full." Jo knows she would get in "huge trouble" for raiding the liquor cabinet but she does it anyway. Polly's mom makes herself drinks such as gin and tonic. Polly discovers her mother passed out and must take her to the hospital. The doctor tells her her mother is an alcoholic and must go into an alcohol treatment center.
 

What Parents Need to Know

About 3 Willows

Parents need to know that this book from the author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants ultimately delivers positive messages about doing what's right, making good choices, taking chances, and accepting oneself. Along the way, the three young teen protagonists deaI with a borderline eating disorder, an alcoholic parent, a fickle cute boy, and the tribulations of fitting in with the popular crowd. The book name-drops characters from the author's Traveling Pants books but is targeted at a younger audience than that young adult series.

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Families Can Talk About

  • Families can talk about Polly's choice to start dieting and her obsession with models. Imagining herself as a model pictured in magazines distributed all over the world, she believes "you could see so much more of the world when you were flat than when you were full ... I'd like to be two-dimensional, she thought. That was what models got to be." What do teens think about the idea of being reduced to a two-dimensional picture? How does Polly's attitude change over the course of the book?
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Most Recent Reviews

  1. Teen Reviewer Age 14
    avyrocks95
    Lives in Kansas
    I rate this title iffy for age 12 and give it 4.0

    A Pretty Good Book

    I did enjoy this book, but some parts were a little slow. The letters were all flashbacks and kind of confusing at times. Basically, if you can watch PG-13 movies, there won't be anything in this book you haven't seen or heard before.

    This review...

    Helped me decide | Had useful details | Read my mind
    Flag as inappropriate

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