Polly is enthralled with the romantic notions she finds in her favorite books, Pride and Prejudice and Anne of Green Gables. She speaks in extremely flowery language (which grated on my nerves enormously and will also make the book more challenging for readers) and goes through life trying to arrange every detail to be more in line with her idea of what romance should be. This consists mainly of meddling in the love lives of everyone she knows.
As much as Polly speaks in an irritating fashion, it’s her complete disregard for the desires of others that makes her a largely unlikeable character. Not only disappointing for Polly’s sake, the bake shop was a minor part of the story, no recipes were offered and the girls were seen burning food more often than not.
Good for: Girls going through an insufferable phase of obsession with one of Polly’s favorite novels. This can happen between ages 11-16. Hand them this and hope they get the hint that everyone else is not nearly as charmed by them.
Sex, Nudity, Dating – Polly’s sister has a boyfriend. Polly daydreams of falling in love. A friend’s mother met a man on the internet and ran off with him. There’s a reference to a “lonely maiden in need of love’s kiss.” Polly spends the majority of the book matchmaking with complete disregard for everyone else’s feelings. A dalmatian and a bulldog have puppies. A boy kissed her a few years ago (although later references make it sound like this happened in kindergarten). A guy almost broke up her parents when they were first dating. There is cheek kissing. Two people say I love you.
Profanity – “stupid,” “dumb”, “God knows what”, “heck”, “nincompoop”, “crap,” “shut it.” Sister uses cusswords and later lets off a string of profanity. In both those instances, we are not privy to what she says.
Death, Violence and Gore – Polly’s sister only says what we’re all thinking and threatens to kill her. Also, Polly imagines two boys having a sword fight to the death to win her hand.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – None.
Frightening or Intense Things – A huge gripe about this (and something else I’ve read lately which I can’t quite recall) – the divorce resulted in the mother leaving and the friend not having a mother anymore. While this is certainly the case in some divorces, it is far more common for kids to have contact (from some to a LOT) with both parents.
