Friday, July 25, 2008

the sisterhood of the travelling pants

I have recently begun re-reading a book entitled The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares. I decided to read the book after seeing the movie based on the book. I thought that the book was much better, as it explored the emotions much deeper than the movie.

In the beginning of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, the character Carmen Lowell sets up the story. She tells us about how the four girls: Carmen, Lena, Bridget and Tibby were best friends since birth. She also tells us how she got the pants. Carmen bought the pants at a second-hand store because she just felt like buying something. She didn’t even try them on. I thought that it was cool how the pants just came into the story being just some random object, and how they evolved into something much more.

The story begins when we find out that the four best friends are all going different places in the summer. Carmen is going to South Carolina to visit her dad, Lena is going to Greece with her sister, Bridget is going to a soccer camp in Baja, and Tibby is staying home making a documentary. The girls decide to share the pants because after they all tried them on, they find that they fit each of them perfectly. Each of the girls has a totally different body type, which is why the pants fitting all of them is magical. They make a list of rules about the pants and they send them to each other after a two week period of having them. I thought that it was interesting that the girls each got them twice, because you could see them with the pants more than once.

On page 27, Tibby is thinking about how she could judge her happiness by her guinea pig, Mimi. I thought that was an interesting concept. If she was happy she would feel sorry for Mimi, but if she was sad, she would be jealous of the guinea pig. The great thing about that was that people actually do think this way. A lot of time in books, emotions aren’t true to how people actually feel them. When I was reading this book I felt as though I was connected to the four girls because I realized I was a bit like each of them.

I love how each of the girls have totally different styles and personalities, but they are still best friends. Lena is the shy and artistic one, Bridget is the glamour jock, Tibby is the rebel and Carmen is the drama queen. I think that many people who read this could relate a bit to each of them, which is why these books may appeal to many readers.

Lena meets a boy named Kostos in Greece. All of the people in Oia love him and Lena just doesn’t like him. Her grandmother tried setting them up, but Lena hates to be set up so she started to make sure they were never somewhere together. I thought that if I were Lena I would definitely think that it wasn’t romantic, since her grandmother set her up with Kostos.

At the all girls’ soccer camp, Bridget falls in love with a coach named Eric. He is too old for her but she goes after him anyways. I think that everyone is sort of watching out for Bridget when they read the book. They know that she is always running with reckless emotion and sometimes that isn’t a good thing. Bridget’s mother died, so sometimes her emotions get tangled and she gets depressed. I thought that it was so sad about her mother, but I thought it was really good of Bridget to still allow herself to love and be loved, even though she suffered a great loss in life.

Carmen found out that her dad is getting married to a woman named Lydia, who has two kids, named Krista and Paul. When Carmen finds out that her dad is getting married, she is in shock. I couldn’t believe that her dad didn’t tell her until then. She sees him about twice a year, and he didn’t even bother to call her about his wedding plans later in August. I felt so sorry for Carmen because she was expecting a summer full of fun with just her and her father, but instead got a summer with people she didn’t know, and a father she didn’t trust anymore.

Tibby started working at the store Wallman’s. She is very depressed because her friends left her for the summer. While working a shift, she hears a crash and sees a girl faint. She was rushed to the hospital And Tibby came along for the ride in the ambulance to make sure the girl wasn’t scared when she woke up. Tibby later meets the girl again and finds out her name is Bailey. Bailey is one of my favourite characters in the book. She is so full of life and is such a good kid. She sees beyond looks and she finds good in everyone. Bailey has leukemia, which is cancer of the blood. I love how Bailey seems to stay so strong when she could lose her life.

Every character in this book has different qualities that you see in people everywhere. Each character is unique and they are nothing like any characters in other books. From Carmen to Lena’s grandmother, there is one thing that is prominent in almost every character. You see their love for something. Lena has a love for art, and Bridget has a love for running. The most important thing is that they all love each other. I really am enjoying reading The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and I would recommend this book to basically everybody I know, because it shows value and emotions. It is such a good book!

In the end, all of the girls came back together and talked about their summer. I thought it was cool because they spent all of their lives together and now they have a whole chapter in their lives that the other girls didn’t know about. This book was really good and I think that many people would like to read it. I think girls would like it more, but some guys may like it. I love this series! The books are great and they make you feel as if you know the characters. The characters are genuine and that is what I like about them. This isn’t one of those books where there is the popular girl, the uncool one and all that. This is a original series with original people. I found this book amazing, and I would recommend you to read it.

3 comments:

beverley said...

I LOVE that series!

"Lena meets a boy named Kostos in Greece. All of the people in Oia love him and Lena just doesn’t like him. Her grandmother tried setting them up, but Lena hates to be set up so she started to make sure they were never somewhere together. I thought that if I were Lena I would definitely think that it wasn’t romantic, since her grandmother set her up with Kostos."

wasn't it that their grandfathers hated each other, and didn't allow them to see one another?

erin meagan said...

No, it is different in the movies.

beverley said...

no...
the whole fish part, remember?

btw, I wanna borrow Now and Then ASAP