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A review of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

by Ann Brashares

A summer apart brings four girls closer together.

Reviewed by: Jennifer Santiago
About Jennifer Santiago

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Long have I aspired to write the Great American Teen Novel, a book that would resonate with teenaged girls like the Judy Blume books that shaped my own adolescence. I am so very jealous of Ann Brashares. This is the novel I've always wanted to write but couldn't. There's nothing so amazing about the plot. In fact, it follows the basic formula- four teenaged girls, the best of friends, each an archetype unto herself- Lena the beauty, Carmen the sensible one, Tibby the rebel and Bridget the star athlete. However, the characters are developed so fully and the situations they encounter are so complex and adult that this book is head and shoulders above other teen-girl books.

The four have been the best of friends their entire lives, with their diverse moms having met in a prenatal aerobics class. Although the four couldn't be more different from one another, they are more bonded than sisters. They draw their confidence, their strength, their very identities from one another. And it's the eve of the first summer vacation that they'll ever spend apart. Lena is headed to Greece to spend the summer with grandparents she barely knows; Carmen is off to South Carolina to bond with her dad; Bridget is going to a competitive soccer camp in Mexico; and Tibby is left behind to work in a depressing drug store in a humiliating polyester smock.

In order to cope with the separation, the girls make a pact? between them, they share a pair of pants. Just ordinary jeans that Carmen bought at a thrift store, yet somehow infused with the magical power to fit each girl's body like a glove and instill in the wearer an unprecedented confidence. Each girl gets the jeans for a week, then must forward them to the next in line with a full account of the adventures had while wearing them.

Of course, no one's summer turns out as planned. Lena arrives in Greece to find her grandmother already playing matchmaker and retreats into her shell. Carmen is devastated to find that her summer with her dad will include his bride-to-be and her two simpering teenagers. Tibby befriends a young girl suffering from leukemia, and Bridget is knocked off her feet by an infatuation with a much-too-old-for-her soccer coach. Throughout the summer, the girls learn painful lessons about themselves and about life, but they always stay connected to one another through letters and the Traveling Pants.

This is a delightful coming-of-age novel about the emotions involved with being confronted with adulthood and realizing you aren't sure you want to grow up after all. It's about coming to terms with yourself even when what you find out isn't pretty. And most of all, it's about the power of friendship to see you through. This book is sure to please teenaged girls but is also a nice reminder to us old folks about the beauty of adolescent friendships.

Click here to buy this book, or read more about it at Amazon.com: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Copyright © by Jennifer Santiago, 2003

Reviewed by Jennifer Santiago:
-- The Lovely Bones - by Alice Sebold
-- 30 Minute Meals - by Rachael Ray
-- Raising Blaze - by Debra Ginsberg
-- Backpack - by Emily Barr
-- You Are Not a Stranger Here - by Adam Haslett
-- Bookends - by Jane Green
-- A Confederacy of Dunces - by John Kennedy Toole
-- Ash Wednesday - by Ethan Hawke
-- All Saints' Day - by Brent Benoit
-- The Stepford Wives - by Ira Levin
-- The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating - by David M. Buss
-- Literary New Orleans - by Judy Long (Editor)
-- The Sopranos Family Cookbook - by Allen Rucker; Recipes by Michele Scicolone
-- Atonement - by Ian McEwan
-- The Crimson Petal and the White - by Michel Faber
-- Midnight Bayou - by Nora Roberts
-- The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants - by Ann Brashares
-- The Zygote Chronicles - by Suzanne Finnamore
-- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - by J.K. Rowling









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