The Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants #1

The Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants
Ann Brashares

This is a book I attempted some months ago. This is the first in a series focusing on a group of 4 girls who end up with a pair of jeans that fit them all perfectly, even though one of the girls is very skinny, and one of the girls is a bit larger. The first book follows the stories of Bridget, Carmen, Lena and Tibby and their summer with the perfectly fitting jeans which they have dubbed 'The Traveling Pants'.

I found the books to be a little strange in the way they were set up. There are 4 main characters and as they do not spend the summer together, this leads to 4 seperate storylines, mostly only coming together at the very beginning and the very end.

As they storylines are developed, the travelling pants come into effect. There a set of rules, put in place by the girls, to do with the pants, and the pants are sent from girl to girl throughout the summer. This causes complications in the storyline and ultimately causes the biggest problem I had with the book.

The story itself is rather stereotypical, dealing with self-esteem and body issues, as well as summer romances and love, and also as the title would suggest, friendship. But the switching storylines can make it hard to follow sometimes, and the writing is rather generic, and it seems very 2 dimensional. The characters, while facing the issues, also seem very generic.

I would only recommend this book to a younger audience from probably 10-14 years of age. Any older and the reader would see the generic-ness of it all.

Until next time,

Atra du evarinya ono varda,
(May the stars watch over you)

Samantha.