Polly Farquhar
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pollyf.bsky.social
Polly Farquhar
@pollyf.bsky.social
1K followers 1.5K following 1.3K posts
Author of LOLO WEAVER SWIMS UPSTREAM (2023), ITCH (2020), some short stories. No dairy, no tree nuts, no peanuts, no sesame, all the books. She/her. www.pollyfarquharauthor.com
https://bookshop.org/shop/PollyFarquhar
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pollyf.bsky.social
Here's my MG book about a boy who itches, lives in rural Ohio, and has an after school job at a pheasant farm. It's got a little college football happening! And a tornado! An Ohio Grassman cameo! #Booksky bookshop.org/p/books/itch...
Book cover of ITCH by Polly Farquhar. A blue gray sky with a shadowy tree and a crescent moon. Hanging in the tree is a red bicycle. Silhouette of barn in silo in background.
November 27, 2025 at 12:38 AM
pollyf.bsky.social
Looking for a book for a kiddo who loves dogs? It's short (169 p)! It's funny! There is goose poop! "Not since Ramona Quimby has a character marched right out of a book with so much bravado, humor, and heart."--Barbara O'Connor #booksky
bookshop.org/p/books/lolo...
A graphic of book cover LOLO WEAVER SWIMS UPSTREAM on an weathered wood background, showing quotes from reviews and that it is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. The pulled review quotes say good things like dog lovers will like this book, that it is face-paced, and Lolo "all but leaps off the page."
November 26, 2025 at 4:59 PM
pollyf.bsky.social
This is from the FAQ from my area Blessing Boxes. I appreciate its clarity.
Screenshot of a Q and A. Bolded questions: What if someone takes all the food from the box? Answer: Then they must have needed it. This is a judgment-free project. You can't steal things that are free.
November 26, 2025 at 3:50 PM
pollyf.bsky.social
Coming in a little sideways perhaps. . .THERE'S ALWAYS THIS YEAR by Hanif Abdurraqib
Cover of THERE'S ALWAYS THIS YEAR on Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib. Image is a basketball hoop with a young black boy sitting atop it.
November 21, 2025 at 5:58 PM
pollyf.bsky.social
I'm reading SOMETHING IN THE WOODS LOVES YOU by Jarod K. Anderson now and loving it. So thoughtful + just full of sentences that are straightforward and gobsmacking and the same time. Oh, and the best part? The nature is common Ohio nature! #booksky #memoir
Cover image for SOMETHING IN THE WOODS LOVES YOU by Jarod K. Anderson. Beautiful cover with a dark background with lighter, sort of illuminated depictions of a creek scene with dragonflies, frogs, lilly pads, jumping fish, a bird. Heron is central image. Feel like I should be able to compare this style to something--a tapestry??--but I'm drawing a blank.
November 1, 2025 at 3:44 PM
pollyf.bsky.social
Friends, the best chocolate chip cookie recipe is in this cookbook. Fat + Flour by Nicole Rucker. (Classic soft oatmeal chunk cookie. But I'm only 2 recipes in, so this could change!) #ColdButterMethodWhoKnew
Cover of cookbook Fat + Flour The Art of the Simple Bake by Nicole Rucker. Background is pink, with 3 piles of cookies in foreground. Look to be varieties of choc chip cookies!
October 8, 2025 at 7:58 PM
pollyf.bsky.social
SCATTERGOOD by H.M.Bouwman is such a fantastic novel! It's children's literature--upper MG--but you know what? It's an excellent book, period. Messy, imperfect characters in a hard world, but beautiful all the same. 📚👍
Cover image of book SCATTERGOOD by H.M. Bouwman. Image is a girl walking toward a big boarding-school type building against the backdrop of an orange and yellow sky. A flock of black birds is flying across the top of the image.
September 15, 2025 at 8:30 PM
pollyf.bsky.social
New thing for old people to learn: Wedding Content Creator.
Screen shot with headline reading "Wedding content creator" and a bit of text underneath reading "Can anyone recommend a talented wedding"
September 5, 2025 at 1:54 PM
pollyf.bsky.social
#booksky Reasons to read Neko Case's memoir:

1) It's great 2)She makes great music 3) Maybe you too were a 70s kid + remember some KISS poster in a friend's brother's room + you were a little kid + u couldn't look at it bc SATAN 4) You were once a child 5) You are a human being 6) Lines like this:
Pic of page of text from Necko Case's book THE HARDER I FIGHT THE MORE I LOVE YOU with this highlighted line: "Loving someone else's art can give you a ride at least halfway to where you are trying to go. Even if you don't know where that is yet." Wowza. Cover pic of NEKO CASE's memoir titles THE HARDER I FIGHT THE MORE I LOVE YOU. COver image is a young girl in a bathing suit holding an orange cat. Behind her is a cut out/black image of a wolf with an open mouth and sharp teeth.
August 29, 2025 at 2:43 PM
pollyf.bsky.social
Looking for one last summer read? LOLO WEAVER SWIMS UPSTREAM is a cool 169 pages, so you + your kiddos can still squeeze it in!

(Unless you're my kids, who start school tomorrow. They're in HS now (!!) so I guess they technically could finish it before school...)

#booksky 🐕🐟🛶🦨🐕 #kidlit
Book cover of LOLO WEAVER SWIMS UPSTREAM by Polly Farquhar. Cover image is 2 kids in a yellow canoe with a good doggo in a lifejacket. The lake water is murky and green. Blurb from Barbara O'Connor reads: "Not since Ramona Quimby has a character marched right out of a book with so much bravado, humor, and heart." I like to think she's right! LOL
August 17, 2025 at 8:27 PM
pollyf.bsky.social
Loved Ann Braden's INTO THE RAPIDS! Less than 200 pages and still full of action and heart. Oh, and I love a canoe book! 📚👍 #kidlit #booksky (I also love a book set in VT and a girl who can swing an axe.)
August 9, 2025 at 2:44 PM
pollyf.bsky.social
The balance of realism and heart in this one--wow. (Also: every sentence is perfect!?) HOW TO TELL A TRUE STORY by Tricia Springstubb is YA with a seventh grader! 📚👍
Book cover image for HOW TO TELL A TRUE STORY by Tricia Springstubb. Image is a drawing of a girl with long hair holding up a newspaper with headline "local hero." A boy is shown in profile next to her. Also shows image of burning house, with 2 shadow figures running from it.
June 5, 2025 at 2:16 PM
pollyf.bsky.social
You'll see a lot of well-deserved praise for THE TROUBLE WITH HEROS by Kate Messner, but I want to add that it's a ♥️ letter to the state of New York. I just loved this book. And if you ever think novels in verse are slight? Pick this one up and be proved wrong! 📚👍
Book cover image for book THE TROUBLE WITH HEROS by Kate Messner. Image is a boy standing on a mountaintop looking at view. He is wearing boots, a ballcap, and carrying a big orange hiking pack. A large, brown, shagging dog is with him. Dog is looking at him with doggy love and has tongue out.
June 4, 2025 at 3:26 PM
pollyf.bsky.social
My book LOLO WEAVER SWIMS UPSTREAM was published 2 years ago today. Hooray for Lolo!

bookshop.org/p/books/lolo...
A graphic of book cover LOLO WEAVER SWIMS UPSTREAM on an weathered wood background, showing quotes from reviews and that it is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. The pulled review quotes say good things like dog lovers will like this book, that it is face-paced, and Lolo "all but leaps off the page."
April 25, 2025 at 12:48 PM
pollyf.bsky.social
📚👍Got such a kick out of this middle grade book! It has a lot of great illustrations so it hits that sweet spot for kids who'd like a "big kid book" and still have pictures. #KidLit
Cover image for book JERRY, LET ME SEE THE MOON by Jeffery Ebbler. Image is cartoony styled boy looking surprised next to a squirrel in clothing and glasses. Behind him is a full moon and an image of a howling dog on a rooftop.
April 13, 2025 at 3:49 PM
pollyf.bsky.social
THE UNDEAD FOX OF DEADWOOD FOREST by Aubrey Hartman is a delight. It's creepy AND cozy. 📚👍
#kidlit #middlegrade #BookSky
Cover image for the book THE UNDEAD FOX OF DEADWOOD FOREST by Aubrey Hartman. Image is of a monocle-wearing fox in a read cape foregrounded by mushrooms.
March 27, 2025 at 3:23 PM
pollyf.bsky.social
Meanwhile, there's this guy in Ohio (good for him!)
Screen shot from a Reddit post, reading: UPDATE: A few days ago, I posted how I would trade my Model S in for a 24 Prius. I had 9 dealerships reach out. NINE. One in particular may actually go through with this plan. Y’all are awesome. One I just left talked shit about me while in the same reverberating room. I am constantly reminded why I cannot stand car dealerships. Was test driving a manual due to the feel of regenerative braking reminding me of my old stick-shift car. So, yeah. Most car dealerships are truly awful. But! A family owned juggernaut may actually relieve me of this car, pay the remaining balance and come to sort of agreement so that my mind be at ease. I cannot thank this subreddit enough. I’ve been trying to explain a plan for days on end and finally met multiple people in person today.
March 22, 2025 at 1:01 PM
pollyf.bsky.social
That's always been a hard word for me to spell, too, Dispatch. I use spell check or the dictionary!
Screen shot from Columbus Dispatch that misspells restaurant in headline. "See aftermath of fire that gutted Greek restaruant in Worthington"
March 21, 2025 at 4:34 PM
pollyf.bsky.social
Same, Luisa, same. 📚👍
Photo of book page that reads "Chapter 65, Luisa, So many men. So many guns. I'm tired of this planet." book cover of book What Fell From The Sky by Adrianna Cuevas. Cover image is a space alien girl dressed in old-fashioned clothes and a Latino boy running. They are looking up at the night sky, which has a meteor streaking across.
March 13, 2025 at 5:37 PM
pollyf.bsky.social
📚👍Just finished WE DO NOT WELCOME OUR TEN-YEAR-OLD OVERLORD by Garth Nix, which has some Dungeons and Dragons action! I know somewhere I saw a post from folks looking for some DD in #kidlit. . .
Cover image for book by Garth Nix titled WE DO NOT WELCOME OUR TEN-YEAR-OLD OVERLORD. Image is a girl with messy hair holding a glowing, basketball-sized orb, lighting her face in a creepy way.
March 13, 2025 at 4:53 PM
pollyf.bsky.social
Absolutely loved the YA book WHERE WOLVES DON'T DIE by Anton Treuer. Books where setting makes the story are about my favorite thing, and the place here is so rich. I'm here for any book with a fisher! PS Main character is in 9th grade! 📚👍 #BookSky
Cover illustration by Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley of the book WHERE WOLVES DON'T DIE by Anton Treuer. Image is a line drawing of a bear with open mouth, teeth visible, and claws extended, with 2 wolves around him. One wolf is below the bear, the other is jumping by its face. Sorry, I am not doing this cover justice!
February 12, 2025 at 12:16 AM
pollyf.bsky.social
I am such a Lesa Cline-Ransome fan, and ONE BIG OPEN SKY does not disappoint. It's also a NIV! 📚👍
Cover image of book ONE BIG OPEN SKY by Lesa Cline-Ransome showing a Black girl in an orange dress standing in grass and looking up at the blue sky. Behind her is a wagon train. A dog sits at her feet.
February 7, 2025 at 2:32 PM
pollyf.bsky.social
📚👍This book made me think of ACROSS SO MANY SEAS by Ruth Behar. (Do we think it could be a Newbery book??) #KidLit #Booksky Bonus points for both books have beautiful covers!
Cover image of book Across So Many Seas by Ruth Behar. Image is a girl's back as she stands on ship looking out to the horizon. The sea is a beautiful blue, and the sky is pink and white stripes. She is holding a stringed musical instrument, like a guitar, and it's been a while since I read this book, so I've forgotten its name and have returned it to the library and can't look it up.
January 25, 2025 at 9:51 PM
pollyf.bsky.social
Just finished and recommend the moving #MgLit Safiyyah's War by Hiba Noor Khan. 📚👍
Book cover of Safiyaah's War by Hiba Noor Khan. Cover image shows a girl in an orang hijab running along the roof of a mosque while leading a girl wearing a yellow star as ordered by the Nazis. In the background is the nighttime skyline of Paris.
January 25, 2025 at 9:44 PM
pollyf.bsky.social
👀💔I am reading SAFIYYAH'S WAR by Hiba Noor Khan. (Suspect it will be excellent.) #MgLit #Booksky #KidLit
Photo of page with the passage "'Ah, but you see, dear child, oppressors always fear the power of books. The truths and wonders that their pages bear threaten the injustice that the Nazis bring with them. It has happened throughout history: the light that a library brings is terrifying to the darkness of a tyrant. I've had word from libraries in Luxembourg and Belgium that the Nazis have raided their buildings, so think it is best to prepare for the worst. They've publicly burned books in German cities for years now. One thing the Nazis know is that you can't truly control a people without controlling what they read.' "
January 23, 2025 at 4:45 PM