The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants - Bev Russell, Library Director

(This column appeared in the May 27, 2007, Star-Herald)

Special childhood friends may be the dearest friends of all. I’ve been lucky to have wonderful friends all my life, but those friends of my youth hold a unique place in my heart. Memories of those years are the memories of a carefree time—a time of laughter, play and the security of unconditional love. Our dearest childhood friends (my sister’s and mine) were the Meyer girls. We would spend summers at their house. A large family with 13 children, my sister and I were just considered #14 and #15. We enjoyed great happiness in their midst and endured unbearable sorrow as well. Thinking about that time brings back glorious memories. I treasure a photo of us as children, arm-in-arm on a hot, windy Nebraska summer day, smiling with the simple joy of being together. The book I read this week, "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" by Ann Brashares returns me to the memories of those days.

The sisterhood in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" is four girls, Tibby, Bridget, Carmen and Lena. The Traveling Pants are a pair of jeans, which seem to have magical qualities. For the first time in fifteen years, the four girls will be spending the summer apart. This is an unsettling event for the friends. Conflicted about the separation, the girls decide they will share a unique pair of jeans that Carmen acquired at a thrift shop. The day before they separate for the summer, the girls each model the pants. The jeans seem to have the miraculous ability to fit each girl perfectly and make each look their best. After each wears the Pants, the girls decide to share them for the summer, thus the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is born.

Because the Pants are so exceptional, they must have rules. A set of ten rules is devised. Rule #1 (a somewhat dubious rule in my opinion) is that they can not be washed. Rule #6—The girls must document their experiences in the Pants. On the left leg…"write the most exciting place you have been while wearing the Pants," and on the right leg…"write the most important thing that has happened to you while wearing the pants." Rule #7—The friends must write each other during the summer, "…no matter how much fun you are having without them" and mail the Pants, according to a pre-arranged schedule

Lena who is spending the summer with her grandparents in Greece gets the pants first. It’s a good place to start. Tibby begs for them next. She is staying home for what promises to be a boring summer and says she will need them to escape from her depression. The third stop is with Carmen whose special summer with her dad in South Carolina is not going as planned. Finally, the Pants travel to Bridget at soccer camp in Baja California. The summer alters each girl’s life, and the Pants stand as a silent witness to the events of this transforming summer.

"The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" by Ann Brashares is book one in a four book series, which follows the girls and the Pants through four summers of their lives. (It may remind some of you, as it did me, of the "The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood" by Rebecca Wells.) These are delightful coming-of-age stories, written for teenagers. Once you have read one, you will want to read all four. The other books in the series are "The Second Summer of the Traveling Pants", "Girls in Pants", and "Forever in Blue". The Scottsbluff Public Library has all four books in the series.

Finally, to my own childhood "sisterhood", the Meyer girls—thanks for the memories.

 

 

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