I want to be like Polly someday, with a filter I pretty much choose to ignore. 😜 It’s Polly’s honesty and fierce devotion to the people she cares about that made me love her character. Willow was equally daring and charming, and her conviction to save her mother (in several ways) was beautiful. This story was a delight to read. ( )

Easy enjoyable read dealing with real life issues with wonderful humour ( )

One of the best coming of age books I've read in while. Quirky, believable characters, and a good plot. The writing is delightful; I wanted to keep reading and reading and reading.

Recommended for late middle school on up. ( )

FROM AMAZON: With a kick like the best hot sauce, this is the laugh-out-loud story of a girl determined to keep up with her aging, crazy-as-a-fox mother.

Willow Havens is 10 years old and obsessed with the fear that her mother will die. Her mother, Polly, is a cantankerous, take-no-prisoners Southern woman who lives to chase varmints, drink margaritas, and antagonize the neighbors - and she sticks out like a sore thumb among the young, modern mothers of their small conventional Texas town. She was in her late 50s when Willow was born, so Willow knows she's here by accident, a late-life afterthought. Willow's father died before she was born, her much older brother and sister are long grown and gone and failing elsewhere. It's just her and bigger-than-life Polly.

Willow is desperately hungry for clues to the family life that preceded her, and especially Polly's life pre-Willow. Why did she leave her hometown of Bethel, Louisiana, 50 years ago and vow never to return? Who is Garland Jones, her long-ago suitor who possibly killed a man? And will Polly be able to outrun the Bear, the illness that finally puts her on a collision course with her past?

The Book of Polly has a great blend of humor and sadness, pathos and hilarity. This is a bittersweet novel about the grip of love in a truly quirky family, and you'll come to know one of the most unforgettable mother-daughter duos you've ever met.

Be prepared to leave your heart with Willow Haven and her mother Polly...who was 58 years old when she became a widow and then learned that she was going to be a mother. You can imagine the difficulties that both of them had since Willow should...by all the laws of nature...been Polly's granddaughter and not her daughter. The book will make you laugh and it will make you cry but overall it will just make you feel good. It's a daughter and mother story with all the joys and fears that come with motherhood as well as daughterhood. I don't recommend very many books as we all have our different ideas of what makes a "must read" story...but If you don't have time to read another book this coming year...I would recommend you give this one a try. ( )