Third Willow
by Lenore M Skomal
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This 2014 Eric Hoffer Award-winning classic is Lenore Skomal's poignant coming of age novel, ostensibly written for young people but better appreciated by adults. "In the apex of the wooded matriarch is where he felt it-his oneness with the willow. The branches fluttered with his weight, as he fused into them. He moved as it moved and vice versa, in a synergistic dance; an extension of the lumbering mammoth and it of him, connected in some unfathomable way."It's the summer of '54 in the show more sleepy midwestern town of Sand Flats, Nebraska. Four lonely misfits forge an unlikely friendship under the draping branches of the third willow-a safe place where humor, magic and sorrow coexist. There they discover that best friends can ease the pressures from the adult world that threaten to steal their innocence. Ringleader Hap-a poor man's Peter Pan-is unwilling to let the abuse of his alcoholic father taint his boyish optimism while he secretly searches for his missing mother. Obsessed with his Indian roots, he constructs a carefree world on the outskirts of town. As the new kid in Sand Flats, tomboy Patsy joins him, eager to escape her father's iron rule and the pain afflicting her wounded brother, a Korean War veteran. Together, Hap and Patsy befriend timid Beah, who struggles to earn the love of her cold mother following the death of her only brother. It takes levelheaded Raz, the eldest of the only Jewish family in town, to be the conscience of the group. Told through their eyes, this is a tale of a summer of unbridled adventure, which ends unexpectedly and abruptly forces them all into adulthood. As tender as it is intense, Third Willow will transport you to the last summer of your innocence. show lessTags
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LMSKOMAL Written in classic storytelling style and from the point of view of children, Third Willow, like Harper Lee's popular novel, deals with the subtleties of societal problems, as relevant today as they were back in 1954. This novel transports the reader to a time long ago, to embrace, laugh, anguish and romp with children faced with problems that are common to most of us. What they lack in skills that only maturation can bring, they make up with in intrinsic wisdom and whimsy.
LMSKOMAL Renamed "Stand by Me" when made into a movie, The Body by Stephen King takes us along with a group of boys growing up in the 1960s, with all the textures and drama that goes along with it. Third Willow, set in post-Korean War America, also takes the readers to a place and a time that may be foreign to them, but once there, they will feel completely safe and at home.
Member Reviews
Third Willow is a very easy book to immediately get into and following along with. Lenore does an awesome job bringing each of the characters to life. The struggles that each of the children and their families deal with, were as relevant in the 50's as they are today.
This book was a definite page turner, filled with interesting details. It was very descriptive and kept me engaged up until the very end. I would highly recommend this book for teenagers as well as adults.
This book was a definite page turner, filled with interesting details. It was very descriptive and kept me engaged up until the very end. I would highly recommend this book for teenagers as well as adults.
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14 Works 199 Members
Lenore Skomal is the author of fourteen books, including Lady Liberty: The History of the Statue of Liberty. Her weekly humor column and videocast (goerie.com) has won numerous Society of Professional Journalist awards. She lives in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Common Knowledge
- Dedication
- Written in loving memory of my father, Bernard J. Skomal, who grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, which inspired this book. This novel is dedicated to his grandchildren, my incredible nieces and nephews, whom I love with all my heart... (show all). Never forget that. Ultimately, may this work stand in homage to those of us who’ve had to grow up too fast and in memory of the children we once were.
- First words
- “Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee aaaaaaaaaa yaaaaaay!”A savage scream split the airless June morning—a vocalblast that shot right through Patsy’s heart, sending her reeling back at least two steps as she struggled to keep her footi... (show all)ng.
- Quotations
- I wish you could see it as I do. I see you as a warrior. In that moment you made the hardest decision of all—to stand up and defend a friend.
Seemed like the willows already knew summer was long over. The remaining leaves on the elm and oak trees lining the dirt road were dotted red and amber, and a lilting breeze kicked them up to expose their pale underbellies. I... (show all)n all the weeks they’d met at the willows, Patsy never recalled such a breeze. It’d been the hottest summer on record. And now the coolness of the wind erased those humid memories.
“You know, I figured out why Mom won’t let us go to the Monsignor’s Mass,” she said with firmness. “He shouldn’t be talking like that in the house of God. When I watched that McCarthy guy on television at school, ... (show all)some of the kids said that he doesn’t just hate Communists; he hates Jews and queers, too. Anyone who is different. And I think you do, too.”
It reminded her of her mom’s false, stretched smile the time Gwen Lazenby came to their back door with a bundle of her son’s blue factory work shirts and heavy Dickies work pants, neither of which her mom felt worth her i... (show all)roning effort. Plus, she hated the woman. ‘Nothing short of contempt’ was how her mom described her hidden feelings for the notorious home wrecker in the tight pants. While she was certain Gwen Lazenby never heard those words out of her mouth, her mom’s phony exaggerated smile gave it all away.
It could have been the gaping hole to hell, the entrance to the slithering underworld where the condemned writhed and moaned, their hungry pale arms grasping at anyone within reach. Never, ever, not even once for a fleeting m... (show all)oment, did she want to find out what was in that pipe. Imagination careening out of control, she forced herself to speak. Hap stood at the entrance to the dark hole when the other three caught up to him, bent over, hands on knees and panting. Patsy peered into the pipe from behind him. The noon sun spread a yellow scallop of light several feet inside, but beyond that, it was black ink. Patsy walked forward to the border between light and dark, and bent her head into the blackness. She heard something. A faint breathing, was it? - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)He then closed it without a sound.
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- Paper, Ebook
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