This is the story of 4 friends, Carmen, Tibby, Lena and Bridget and a pair of magical pants that fit them all perfectly and the story of friendships that survive separation and all the angst of growing up.
Bibiliography:
Brashares, Ann. "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants". Random House Children's Books, 2002.
My Impressions:
This was a fun read and I actually read the series to find out what happens to the girls and their friendships. I enjoyed the way that each one lives reflected back to their friendships and how they came to rely on each other when times were tough. Good for young girls who are coming of age and have strong friendships. I think that this series is very relatable to young girls around the 8th grade and up.
Reviews:
School Library Journal
Gr 9 Up-During their 15th summer, four girls who have been lifelong friends spend the season apart. In a summer's launch ceremony, they decide to pass along among themselves a pair of thrift shop jeans which oddly seems to fit each of them, although Carmen, Tibby, Bridget, and Lena have very different physiques. Ann Bashares' novel (Delacorte 2001) uses this conceit to travel among the friends' four very different geographic locations, experiences, and self-realizations, making for a complex story in which each girl's voice is distinct both in text and in actress Angela Gothals' reading. Lena spends the summer in Greece, visiting her grandparents and gaining the courage to act instead of always observing quietly; Bridget attends soccer camp in Mexico and makes a dangerous game of flirting with a college-age counselor; Carmen has planned to spend the summer with her father but discovers, upon arriving in South Carolina, that he is about to remarry a woman who has two teens of her own; Tibby stays home in Washington, DC, working at a drugstore, and unexpectedly becomes friends with a 12-year-old girl who has leukemia. Each girl pushes the emotional limits of both herself and those around her. While the traveling pants themselves seem rather artificial, these emotions and the developments they inspire in the individuals and in their relationships ring absolutely true. The recorded version of this book makes it flow more easily than its print counterpart, due to Gothals' care in individuating every character's pitch and rhythm while remaining faithful to Brashares' words and the important pauses between passages.-Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
In this feel-good novel with substance, four teenage girls, friends since they were all born just weeks apart, are about to embark on their first summer as separate young women. Carmen, half-Hispanic, has a knack for math; Lena, the beauty of the group and self-conscious about her appearance, demonstrates artistic talent; Bridget is the tall soccer star; and Tibby, the rebel, sports a nose ring. Visiting grandparents for the first time in Greece, attending soccer camp in Mexico, spending the summer with dad in South Carolina, or working at home, how will these girls survive their time alone? Leave it to a pair of secondhand jeans, which, despite their various body shapes, fits all four perfectly. These magical jeans, dubbed the Traveling Pants, span the world, one week at a time, lending their mystical powers wherever they go. The pants become a metaphor for the young women finding their own strength in the face of new love, unexpected friendships and death, a father's remarriage, and a reckless relationship-and without their best friends. Debut novelist Brashares renders each girl individual and lovable in her own right, emphasizing growing up without growing apart. Move over, Ya Ya Sisters. (Fiction. YA)
Suggested Use:
This would be a good book/series for a young girls reading club and discussion about growing up and coming of age.
Book Cover:
No comments:
Post a Comment