The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Remember: Pants = love. Love your pals. Love yourself.

In The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, by Ann Brashares, four best friends discover that they will be separated all summer long, for the first time, ever. As all four of their mothers were best friends and pregnant at the same time, the girls have been together since before they were born. Carmen, Lena, Tibby, and Bridget are more like sisters than friends.

Naturally the girls promise to write each other while they’re all away, but sometimes letters just aren’t good enough. When Tibby spies some thrift store blue jeans lying unnoticed on Carmen’s dresser, she finds herself drawn to them. Usually Tibby likes unsightly clothes and with Carmen’s backside from the Puerto Rican side of her family, there was no way the pants would fit Tibby’s long legs and narrow hips. But they did.

Lena and Bridget also tried the pants, and the magical pants fit them all. These pants were going to be the thing to keep them together throughout the summer; the summer of the Traveling Pants.

Lena is off with her sister to spend their summer in Greece with their grandparents. She spends her time exploring the beauty of Greece and painting, when she meets Kostos, her grandparent’s neighbors’ grandson. Lena has never been very graceful with boys. Kostos tries to pursue her and even though Lena finds him attractive as well, she doesn’t know how to handle his boyish charm.

Tibby, unfortunately, is stuck at home working every day at Wallman’s. She mopes around every day, thinking about how much fun her friends are having, and then she meets a 12 year old girl named Bailey. She impresses Tibby by wanting to help her create her documentary. Although she is annoyed with Bailey at first, they soon develop an unlikely and unforgettable friendship.

Carmen gets to spend her summer with her father, whom she hasn’t really seen since her parents got a divorce. She is so excited to be with him and spend time with him, until she gets to his house in South Carolina and discovers he has a new house…with a new family. Carmen is so mad that her father kept his second family from her, and she doesn’t like her new step-mother and sister.

Bridget’s summer consists of soccer, soccer, and her cute new crush, Eric, in Baja California. Eric is a tad older than Bridget and happens to be one of the soccer coaches at the camp, but that doesn’t stop her. She spends every minute trying to impress him with her soccer skills and does everything she can to get him to notice her, even if it includes breaking some rules.

Throughout the summer, the four girls write to each other and send the pants to each other. Each time one of the girls has the pants, they become empowered and feel like they can do no wrong. The pants gives each girl a confidence that they’ve never had before, and a summer they’ll never forget.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is a funny, friendly, and heartwarming tale of four best friends who share a sisterhood of a lifetime. This novel is definitely for anyone who can laugh endlessly with her girlfriends and understand that some best friends are better than sisters. As the story was turned into a movie, as well, both stories are worth reading and watching.