“Wear them, they will make you brave.”

I have always loved The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. It came out originally when I was probably (definitely) a little too old for it, but luckily my sister like the series too so I could borrow it (see also: the Georgia Nicolson books and The Lizzie Mcguire Movie).

If you’re not familiar with the series, it’s about four girls who find themselves separated over summer for the first time in 16 years. Just before they leave for their summer vacations, they find a pair of blue jeans that magically fit all four of their different bodies. They decide to spend the whole summer communicating by mailing these jeans back and forth. Then they go their separate ways to have their own stories.

It’s definitely YA, and now I’m even older reading it than I was the first time, but it’s still a good story. We have Lena (the pretty but shy one spending the summer in Greece), Tibby (the one who’s stuck at home with her angst), Carmen (the half Puerto Rican who suddenly presented with her husband’s brand new blonde family) and Bridget (the soccer star with some major issues).

What strikes me so much after having read the book years ago, and watched the movie several times in between, is how much my opinions of the girls have changed. Bridget it was always my favorite character before, because I thought she was brave and I loved the description of her sexy-times with her soccer coach. Now I feel like she’s a bit of a sexual predator and probably needs some major psychological counseling. In the movie version, I loved Carmen, mostly because America Ferrera is such a fantastic actress and I thought her storyline was compelling. I’ve never really liked to Lena and that hasn’t changed. But Tibby’s relationship with the little girl with leukemia hit me a lot harder now that I have two kids of my own. Anyway it’s a book that holds up well over the test of time and since I don’t remember ever reading any of this equals I’m excited to see that Overdrive has them all!