Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Book 1)

When I picked up The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, I was expecting a light-hearted fun read about the trials & tribulations of being a teen-aged girl. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is all of these things, but surprisingly more. This story of 4 best friends, who spend their first summer apart from each other if full of depth and life. Meet Carmen, Tibby, Bridget and Lena, all the best of friends, but each a unique and distinct character with their own set of strengths and weaknesses. Your "summer" will be spent with Carmen, learning how to cope with a divorced mom and dad and the issues that a split family faces. With Tibby, you will learn through adorable Bailey, how it isn't the years you've been on this earth that make you wise, but what you do with the time you've been given, and how to treasue what is truly of value. Run along with Bridget, the athlete and soccer star, who has to discover who she is without the presence of a mom. And finally, experience Greece with Lena, who learns something about what our heritages mean about ourselves and a taste at first and true loves. What binds these friends through out the summer is this shared pair of magical blue jeans that look perfect on each one of them, despite their different body shapes & sizes. But at the end of the summer, you'll see that what binds these girls is far more than a pair of traveling pants.

This is the story of best friends Lena, Carmen, Bridget, and Tibby. Just before their first summer apart, they discover the Pants. The Pants are magical in many ways. The girls decide to trade them throughout the summer, so in a way they can still be together. This book covers the beautiful, exciting, confusing, romantic, and sad happenings on each girl's vacation and her time with the Pants.I was in love with this book right away. At first, the characters seemed... different. Like Lena, she's not a people person. Neither is Tibby. But after 3 or 4 chapters, I was glued to the girls. I felt like they were my best friends. I was really excited to know what happened next in their stories. Anyway, this would be a great book for anyone between the age of 12 to 16. It's wonderful. The book was very well- written in my opinion, and taught a LOT of lessons about life, without being annoying at all! I think the best and most important one was, embrace life, and tell it that you love it, and enjoy it while it lasts.

With her debut novel, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants," author Ann Brashares said that she hoped that teens would find it "to be the kind of book that sticks with them a bit, the way books I liked when I was that age stuck with me." All bets are that teens will find this warm story of friendship, loyalty, and love to be that and more. Angela Goethals, who has appeared in numerous films from "Home Alone" to "Jerry Maguire" perfectly voices the joys and sorrows of four young girls who have been friends for all of their lives. Tibby, Carmen, Lena and Bridget didn't spring from the same molds, still they're best friends. Finally, the time comes when they'll be spending their first summer apart, each going in different directions from overseas to a soccer camp to a summer with Dad. The common thread between the girls this summer is a pair of denim threads, blue jeans, that is. Now, these aren't just an ordinary pair of jeans - these pants are imbued with a bit of magic and they fit each girl perfectly. The girls decide that the jeans should be shared, and sent back and forth from girl to girl during the summer. That's a lot of traveling for pants, but the summer is also a lot of growing up for the girls as they face decisions, challenges, problems and experiences. But, what is paramount is the friendship between them as symbolized by the wonderful pants. This is a "feel good" story about friendship, about unconditional loyalty and love imaginatively told and superbly read. - Gail Cooke

This book is truly excellent. I first discvered the book from my friend who was reading it first. I asked to read it next. So what she decided to do was to letall of our friends pass it around and read it, and sign a page which was important to us. I read it in one day....twice!! I didn't do any homework, I just read the book. I read it twice. It was one of the best stories ever. 4 girls, all the same age as me-Carmen, Bridget, Lena and Tibby. All of there stories touched me, and I felt exalted when done reading it. The fact that I passed it on to my friend and she read it in a day too, says a lot about it. She never reads books in one day. This book was truly excellent, but I wouldn't recommend it for kids under 13. This book deals with true teenage problems, and doesn't depict teenagers as stupid or dumb, but does paint them as naive, but not in a condescending way. It also deals with them learning a lesson that they will remember for the rest of their lives.