The Book of Polly

January 30, 2017
Hepinstall’s Southern coming-of-age novel, about a girl who worries that her 68-year-old, Virginia Slims-smoking mother will die from cancer, could easily have been a TLC reality series caricature, with Polly Havens a hybrid of Granny from The Beverly Hillbillies and Shirley MacLaine’s Ouiser Boudreaux in Steel Magnolias. Instead, it’s full of laughter and warmth and sadness. The Walgreens-working widow who must not suffer fools at all is modeled on the author’s mother, a Louisiana native. Is Polly—who tries to kill all the varmints destroying her garden, yet painstakingly nurses an orphaned squirrel she names Elmer—a bigger handful than her 10-year-old daughter Willow, who tells whoppers about her mother so she remains larger than life, too big for “the Bear” (aka cancer) to take down? The girl, as clever and smart-mouthed as her mother, narrates through age 16 and never loses pitch. Polly stays true to her cantankerous self, refusing to divulge her secrets to her daughter, and Phoenix Calhoun, her adult son’s high school friend, acts the righteous dude as he watches over the two women. This is a warm and fresh tale, made so by characters as varied as the evil Montessori-schooled twins next door, Willow’s steadfast friend Dalton, and a Bible-thumping faith healer.

December 15, 2016
This chain-smoking, margarita-swilling, varmint-shooting 68-year-old with secrets in her past is nothing like the other moms in town--and her 10-year-old daughter is terrified of losing her. Willow Havens was conceived "in something close to a bona fide miracle, when [Polly Havens] and her soon-to-be-late husband of thirty-seven years consummated their love for the last time." Three days after the funeral, Polly, in her late 50s at that point, learned she was pregnant. Advised by her doctor to terminate the pregnancy, she advised him to drop dead. Five months later, Willow was born, and Polly raises her the same way she raised her first two, long since grown and gone: "Folksy southern wisdom and distinctly custom-made punishments." But Willow is worried. "What tormented me most, even more than [her]secrets, were her cigarettes." Polly works as a checker at Walgreens, but her real calling is her flower and vegetable garden, "which encompassed most of our front and back yards" and is the source of epic feuds with squirrels and other "varmints" ranging from beetles, stinkbugs, and squirrels to the neighbors' pets and the neighbors themselves. Hepinstall's (Blue Asylum, 2012, etc.) lively story follows the pair into Willow's teen years, when her best friend, Dalton, becomes a boyfriend and she starts to spend time with girls who have very different lives: mothers with Fendi bags and Pilates classes and crews of Mexican workers cleaning their mansions. Willow's brother Shel comes home from Mexico, where he's been nursing his wounds since his wife dumped him. When Willow suggests he try internet dating, Polly wonders what he'll put in his profile. "Drunk, hates women, no job, lives with mother?" When Polly comes down with a case of the Bear, which is the family's word for cancer, Willow's worst fears take shape. Classic elements of Southern comedy--evil twins, people dropping dead, a faith healer, a river-rafting trip--surround a lovable pair of central characters.

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February 15, 2017

Willow, ten years old, is convinced her mother is about to die. Polly gave birth to Willow at age 57 shortly after becoming widowed, so she is the oldest and most embarrassing mother in town. Willow wants to save her mother from herself. It's no easy task when irreverent, impulsive, margarita-drinking Polly lives life on her own terms, including shooting varmints, feuding with the neighbors, and lighting fires. As Willow, curious and wily in her own right, becomes a teenager, she longs to understand and outwit her mother, but comes face-to-face with the tangled beauty of strong yet imperfect love. Using pleasantly biting language, Hepinstall (Blue Asylum) introduces a mildly dysfunctional family in Texas. With a quirky tone that is sure to garner a guffaw or two, she explores the complex bonds of family as serious life issues from the past and present intrude. VERDICT Replete with sparkling vitality and endearing warmth, this novel is for those who enjoy a spirited helping of Southern sass in their stories. For fans of Rebecca Wells's Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.--Gloria Drake, Oswego P.L. Dist., IL

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2017

In this novel set in small-town Texas, Willow has always been fixated with the health of her elderly mother, who gave birth to her at age 57, following the death of Willow's father. Though in her senior years, Polly is a spirited Southerner who enjoys a good margarita in addition to quarreling with her neighbors. Over the course of the story, narrator Willow matures from a young child who tells lies about her mother to a moody teenager with a boyfriend and a penchant for spying. However, Polly is the true star of the show, and much of the narrative is driven by Willow's attempts to unearth secrets from her mother's past, such as why Polly refuses to return to her hometown of Bethel, LA. The book cover, which features a blurry image of an adult woman holding a gardening tool, likely won't entice teens, so this title will require hand selling. But those with older parents may share some of Willow's thoughts and concerns and will enjoy this humorous, poignant tale of family and loss. VERDICT For those who appreciate quirky characters, especially fans of Grandma Dowdel in Richard Peck's A Long Way from Chicago.-Carrie Shaurette, Dwight-Englewood School, Englewood, NJ

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.