Teens who loved Ann Brashares's The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2001) will cheer its equally riveting sequel The Second Summer of the Sisterhood. As in the first novel, four teen girls who have known each other since birth (their moms shared a pregnancy aerobics class) further forge their bond of friendship through a pair of thrift-store jeans that magically, impossibly, fits them all perfectly.

Like the summer before, Carmen, Bridget, Tibby, and Lena share their individual adventures with the Pants collective, creating an engaging, kaleidoscopic narrative of four voices. This summer, Tibby attends a film program in Virginia and Bridget (Bee), whose mother has died, impulsively jets off to Alabama to get reacquainted with her estranged grandmother. Lovely Lena tries to protect herself from the heartbreak of loving her long-distance Greek god boyfriend Kostos, and Carmen deals (poorly) with her mother dating again and having the nerve to borrow the Pants!

Loved It, the Perfect Summer Read

I just finished this book, and I loved it. There is nothing not to like about it. I think after reading this I'm going to be emo for at least a week because every storyline made me cry at least once, and Lena's made me cry at least three. I have not read a book in a long time that I could relate to on such a personal level. The mother-daughter realtionships were very good, but didnt fit me, however, I found I could relate to the girls' relationship problems and solutions in general. I really saw myself in each of the girls at different points in the novel, and I think that was a very good aim of the author; to bring out enough personality traits and diversity to be able to grab the attention of readers on a personal level to keep them attatched. Entertaining and emotionally connective, this book is designed to be the perfect summer read.

Laugh. Cry. Share the Pants.

Fans of the first book with be delighted to hear that Lena, Carmen, Tibby and Bridget are back for another adventure with The Pants. Be warned though- the sequel is more dramatic than the original.

To start off, Bridget takes a bus to Alabama where she tries to get to know her deceased mother by disguising as "Gilda" and offering to clean out her grandmother's attic. Tibby visits film school and instantly becomes friends with a couple of semi-punks who encourage her to publicly embarrass her mom by making a degrading film. Carmen's mom falls in love with a friend from work and causes Carmen much anguish, along with a surprise visitor from Carmen's last summer moving in. And Lena finds out Kostos has made a heartbreaking decision.

To say this book is light and breezy is a lie. It is funny, of course, but deals with real life on a deeper scale. It is an excellent sequel and fans will not be disappointed.

Not as good as the first, but a nice mother-daughter book

As I said above, I liked the first book better but the characters became even more human in this second installment! We get to see Carmen have yet another parental crisis, Lena lighten up while dealing with her first real love, Bridget finally come to terms with her past and Tibby finally creates a movie she is proud of. Mothers and daughters really play a huge roll in this book.
Once again this author is not afraid to address real teen issues. Worth a read!