Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Ann Brashares. 2001. New York: Random House Children's Books. 352 pages. ISBN 0-553-49479-1

Plot Summary: Lena, Bridget, Carmen and Tibby have been friends forever. But this summer they’re going to be separated. Each girl has her own summer adventures planned: Bridget is going to soccer camp in Mexico, Lena will be with her grandparents in Greece, Carmen with her Dad in South Carolina, and Tibby will be working at home at her first job. But before the summer begins they discover the magical jeans—found at a thrift shop—that fit and look great on all four of them, as different as they are. They vow to share the pants—mailing them back and forth. Each girl confronts her own challenges and tribulations over the summer. Both Lena and Bridget get involved with older boys, Carmen has to deal with her father’s new fiancé and family, and Tibby befriends a girl who is dying. The reader shares each girl’s experiences both with and without the pants. The pants become a talisman of their friendship and support for each other while they are on their separate adventures over the summer.

Critical evaluation: I think that the strength of this book is that each girl’s story can stand alone. Their friendship, as represented by the pants, intertwines the plot and holds the book together. Short letters from the girls to each other help hold the disparate parts together (as do the pants!). Particularly captivating is Tibby’s story—and her friendship with a girl she might never have noticed. Through her friendship with Bailey, she learns to be less shallow and to see people for who they really are. Each girl in the book has similar growth experiences.

Reader’s Annotation: For the first time ever, these four friends will spend their summer apart. Will sharing the pants help them stay close emotionally to one another?

About the author: Ann Brashares is an American writer of young adult fiction. She was born and raised in the Washington DC area with her three brothers. She attended the Sidwell Friends School and then studied philosophy at Barnard College in New York City. After college she worked in editorial jobs until 2000, when she began her first novel, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, published in 2001. Over the next five years she wrote three sequels-The Second Summer of the Sisterhood, Girls in Pants, and Forever in Blue.

Since these sequels she has written three other books: The Last Summer (of You and Me) in 2007, Three Willows: The Sisterhood Grows (2009), and My Name is Memory (published in 2010). She lives in New York City with her husband, an artist, and their three children. Visit her website at http://annbrashares.com/

Genre: Realistic fiction

Curriculum Ties: N/A

Booktalking Ideas: How are the jeans themselves like the girls' friendships?

Reading Level/Interest Age: 12 and up.

Challenge Issues: N/A

Why Included: I read this book because I was curious about the popularity of the series. Also, it was included in YALSA’s Top Ten list.