The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
by Anne Brashares
2001
Delacorte Press
New York
ISBN: 0385729332
Plot Summary:
Bridget, Carmen, Tibby, and Lena are spending their first summer apart since they met as babies. With the magical pants as instrument, the quartet vow to stay in touch, keep abreast, and experience life to the fullest.
However, none of the girls' experiences evolve as they hope, and their estrangement forces each girl to attempt to discover her own desires, feelings, and optimum choices. Mistakes are made by each of the girls, and loves lost and found; their exchanges of letters and their fierce commitment to the group provide a kind of emotional embrace, each one for the other.
Critical Evaluation:
Brashares weaves the girls separate experiences together fluidly, allowing each girl's moments to be understood both through her, and refracted through the three others. This is accomplished through the use of short letters, and a fast-paced interchange of girl, place, and emotion. This structure is lively, preventing any slowdown within the constant switch of characters; and because Brashares utilizes a seemingly random movement between the girls spontaneity remains constant.
Reader's Annotation:
A magical pair of pants that fit all four friends provides a journey to self and sisterhood for a group of teenage girls. Apart for the summer, the friends experience love, loss, anger, and death--together and separate.
Author Information:
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was Ann Brashares first novel; she parlayed it into a 4-part series, and a popular duet of films. Since the series' completion, she has written two other books, the latest reflects a movement out of YA and into adult fiction.
Genre:
coming-of-age/ romance/ "chick-lit"/ YA fiction
Booktalking Ideas:
*In what ways do the pants serve as magical forces? What effect do they have on the girls?
Are these effects positive or negative?
*How might Bridget's strong-willed impetuousness relate to the death of her mother?
*Does Carmen's anger towards her father produce a change in their relationship?
*How does Bailey's death alter Tibby's world view?
Reading Level/ Interest Age:
Early teen and up.
Challenge Issues:
Challenges: hints of sexual activity, but none of it graphic; death of a young girl.
Answer to challenges: Though the themes are mature, the material is handled subtly, and without graphic overtones. Therefore, challenges will most likely be absent, or easily demurred when put into the context of the larger YA fiction universe.
Why its inclusion?:
I saw the film adaptation several years ago, and it was so wonderful and moving, that I've had a tremendous soft spot in my heart ever since.