YOUTH CORRESPONDENT
What makes Ann Brashares' "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" series good is the oddly large amount of value that the author places on friendship.
What makes The Sisterhood series great, though, is that this emphasis on friendships is actually the main, overriding theme of the series and the obvious, honest-to-goodness intention of the author.
In fact, the friendship theme actually replaces the stupid-knight-in-shining-armor theme that is Hollywood's current method of insulting teenagers.
You know the drill: You think the girl has found security in herself, or at least in something other than her desired guy, then he abandons her in the "climactic" scene.
But girls, don't cry! Brashares has delivered us from the condescending bondage of these movies with her new take on a mere pair of jeans. Upon realizing that the jeans fit them all, four close friends decide to pass them around. Each "sister" wears them for part of the summer, and at the end of each book, they all reminisce about their "magical" adventures and write about them on the pants.
The four sisters are not stereotypes but more like tweaked archetypes. Lena, narrator of the second book, "The Second Summer of the Sisterhood," is Greek. However, never in Brashares' dreams would Lena have a Big Fat Greek Wedding. She is the opposite breed: an introverted, thoughtful artist.
Brashares does a wonderful job of showing Lena's development as a person, though, by taking the audience to Greece for the first summer and introducing us all to adorable Kostos, her first love.
Counteracting conservative Lena is Carmen, the narrator of the first book, "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants." She comes off as a typical wild child, but you soon learn that she is smart and has a passion for others and for life.
Carmen also has more hormonal moments--like smashing the window of her dad's house with rocks--that are actually human and understandable.
And, if Carmen's amusing rebelliousness doesn't cut it for you, you may be more cut out for Bridget, an all-around star at everything who goes to camp in Baja, Mexico, in the first book.
While Bridget is there, you see both her confident, flirty side and her more muddled side. You learn that this stems from the fact that her mother died when she was only 12.
Lastly, there is Tibby, an aspiring filmmaker with a golden heart that, as evidenced by her attitude toward her family, is a little rusty.
Rusty, that is, until she meets Bailey, a leukemia patient. She turns Tibby's otherwise boring summer, monopolized by her full-time job at a drugstore, into a lesson on loving others for who they are and not wasting any time in finding their lovable qualities.
While Brashares' use of "magical" jeans may sound just as cliched as the hero on the white horse, her way of inviting the reader into the sisterhood is interesting and witty.
Brashares weaves the individual tales of the girls' separate summers, and then sews it all together at the end of each book.
What's best about the series is that the girls' strong, sincere relationships help them solve their problems.
And while their friendship may seem too perfect, at least there are no corny "Let me give you a helping hand" scenes.
So, the moral of the story? Whether you're looking for a break from the timeless Huck Finn or Jane Eyre, or just dying to read a well-written teen novel, Brashares is undoubtedly engaging. Before you know it, you're a part of the sisterhood, too.
SAMANTHA LOWERY is a junior at Riverbend High School.