The Second Summer of the Sisterhood

by Ann Brashares

This is the sequel to The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants , which I enjoyed. In the first book, Carmen, Lena, Bridget, and Tibby found a pair of “magic” jeans that flattered each of their diverse figures. They passed it around during their first summer spent apart during their 15 years of friendship (i.e. their whole lives). Each experienced profound and life-changing events in the jeans.

This book chronicles their second summer. Lena and Carmen stay home in Bethesda — Lena working in a clothing store full of beige clothes her mother loves, and Carmen babysitting. Tibby heads off to a summer film program at a University a few hours’ drive away. At the last minute, Bridget decides to run off to Alabama to try to reconnect with her grandmother, and her summers as a child (before her mother died). At first, the pants seem to be failing the girls, but then their magic starts to kick in.

As with the first book, the girls face real-world problems, and in the end start to pull the pieces of their lives together — mending broken relationships, healing broken hearts and finding their old selves again. Brashares handles these real-world situations with sensitivity and a bit of humor. Once again, she has produced a compelling, sincere book for and about teenaged girls and their friendships.