The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Photo Credit CommonSense Media

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares encompasses all that a reader could want in what seems like a lighthearted book about friendship from the cover. This book, while being lighthearted and fun, also takes a dive into very realistic challenges that teens today are facing, while providing the reader with some unexpected insights about life and love and friendship. With a beautiful writing style, this book becomes another friend of your own.

Ann Brashares created four distinctly unique, yet completely relatable characters whose lives intertwine beautifully in their friendship journey. Carmen, who is Puerto Rican, confident and very sure of how she feels. Tibby who is very pessimistic on the outside, yet a wonderful friend underneath her hard exterior. Lena, the beautiful yet shy friend, who is very reserved yet thinks with her whole heart. And Bridget a confident athlete who knows what she wants and goes after it. The letters each friend writes to another really tells a lot about each character and is an intriguing way to show the reader who each girl is as opposed to just saying what type of person they are.

For example, in one letter, Bridget writes, “Tibba-Dee, you would hate this place. Wholesome, all-American people doing sports all day. High fives are common. I even witnessed a group hug. Sports cliches all day long. Almost makes you happy to be at Wallman’s don’t it?... of course, I love it. But everyday I’m here, I’m glad my real life is not like this, full of people like me, ‘cause then I wouldn't have you would I? Oh, I’m in love. Did I tell you that yet? His name is Eric. He’s a coach and 100% off limits. But you know how I get.” Just from this letter, we can infer a lot about both Tibby and Bridget in a way that makes us feel closer to them. Each of the four main characters gets their own story within the book, following them through their own trials and tribulations during their summer apart where we become a part of their summer through each letter. Each character faces things we may all face in life, yet they face their challenges in different ways, making them relatable, believable characters.

Along with the vivid characters, the figurative language that Brashares uses creates amazing imagery for the reader. When Lena gets to Greece, it is described as “The water was a darker copy of the sky, teased by the wind just enough to make it glitter and shine. The thin semicircular island hugged the wide expanse of water.” This one sentence gives the picture perfect description of the island. Brashares also uses figurative language to describe some of the other characters that the girls encounter, such as when Tibby meets Brian. “He was both skinny and doughy at the same time, his skin as white blue as skim milk.” Again, the figurative language provides a clear picture of their first impression of Brian. These types of figurative language added throughout the story provides meaning quickly and with emotional entisity. It provides the reader with a more specific, clear, powerful images to help visualize the story.

Within the plot line of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, some unexpected insights. A memorable insight came from 12 year old Bailey when she says, “I’m afraid of not having enough time. Not enough time to understand people, how they really are, or to be understood myself. I’m afraid of the quick judgements and mistakes that everybody makes. You can’t fix them without time. I’m afraid of seeing snapshots instead of movies.”This is such an unexpected insight into life from a 12 year old who is wise beyond her years. Lena also had an unexpected insight when she realized that “she was sad that people like Bee and Kostos, who had lost everything, were still open to love, and she who’d lost nothing, was not. Love is such a vast and overwhelming concept, and everyone believes they are open to love, yet Lena learns that she is not, even though she has lost nothing to cause her to resent the idea of love. Tibby also had an unexpected insight as she looked at everyone around her and realized that, “Maybe happiness was just a matter of the little upticks - the traffic signal that said “Walk” the second you got there - and downticks - the itchy tag at the back of your collar - that happen to every person in the course of a day. Maybe everybody had the same allotted measure of happiness within each day.” These insights about fear, time, love, life and happiness were unexpected in what looked like a light fun novel about friendship, yet they added so much meaning to the story.  

This text really connected to my feeling and backed up my views of the world. I think friendship and love and happiness are important, but so is the grief felt by the hardships that we go through in life. This text was a realistic view of what every human goes through and what they can learn from it. Just like Carmen had to consider the question, “Do you think it’s easier to be mad at people you trust? Why is that? Because you trust that they’ll love you anyway.” Trust is such an important part of life and love and trust go hand in hand. Both of these values are a part of the human experience. We must all question the trust we hold in our loved ones. This text does a great job of capturing the reader’s heart and connecting them with values that apply to all humans through the experiences and insights of the characters. Overall I highly enjoyed this book, it was entertaining, and funny, and sad and hit all of my emotions in a nice package about friendship and love. I give this 4.5 out of 5 stars! I really connected to the characters and cannot wait to continue reading the series. I hope their friendship stays strong and they participate in more adventures that impact their human experience.

The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants is like a lifelong friend that you can take on your own journey through life. It’s a beautiful story about friendships and provides opportunities for the readers to find themselves in either the distinct characters, the experiences that they go through, or the unexpected insights that the characters learn about life along the way.  Don’t let the cover fool you! This book has a lot more to offer than just a story about magic pants and friendship. I think this is a great coming of age story, that even adults will enjoy.