Customer Reviews

Girls in Pants (Sisterhood of Traveling Pants, Book 3)

5 star:		(131)
4 star:		(38)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book was so great. It dealt with the girls growing up a little and realizing what each of them has inside plus the support of each other and family, they can make it in the world.

They all are sad because they know at the end of this summer they will have to separate and make a way for themselves in the world, but are hoping to still stay close. Wish it was this way but for many of us, we know that life gets busy and friends grow apart.

This book however the girls lean on each other a bit, but are a bit more independent. They learn to rely on themselves a bit more. Like Lena, who wants to go to art college but her dad forbids it. He won't pay for her to, so now she must work to get a scholarship. Carmen must deal with her mom and David having a new baby, just as she is ready to leave for college. Tibby must deal with her siblings and what she really feels about Brian. Bee is coaching a soccer camp and must deal with the past.

It all went so fast you won't want to go to sleep until you read the last page. I do hope there is another book, but this one was the best!

Having recently read The Third Summer of the Sisterhood, I highly recommend this and the three before it. Actually, I mostly recommend this and the other books to mature girls because of it being about teenage girls who demonstrate how real teenage girls act. As a matter of fact, whenever one of my friends asks me what books they should read I always first mention this series. If they say they have already read it, we end up getting of topic and start talking about how great the book is.
One of the reasons why this book is so great is because of it being so real, but yet it still has the romance and fun that every girl dreams of. For instance, when one of the girls mother is getting remarried, then having to deal with that would be like a real life situation. Or, since one of the girls gets to hang out with her biggest crush the whole summer, then she gets to experience some true romance. So, although the book shows wishes coming true, it also demonstrates that not everyone and their actions are perfect.
All in all, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series are the best books that I have ever read. I'm hoping that Ann Brashares will write a fourth book, but I having a feeling that the third one will be the last.

I think the reason that Ann Brashares planned on writing only four books about the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is because there the group's roster consists of four girls. Each girl writes the introduction and the conclusion to a book in first person, but each novel is told by Brashares in third person. Tibby has the honors for "Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood," which I expected because I had a strong hunch that Bee would have the honors for the fourth and presumably final novel. I had a working hypothesis that the girl who writes the introduction undergoes the most major of the crises that afflict the sisterhood in that particular novel, but that might be forcing the issue in this one.

The third summer of the Sisterhood is the last one before college, although only Lena has any academic concerns. Lena was planning on going to art school but when her father discovers that his daughter's art lessons involve sketching nude males he pulls her college funding. This certainly gives the lovely Lena something else to think about besides Kostos. After the death of Bapi, Lena's grandmother Valia has come to live with the family in America and Carmen ends up watching the cranky old lady for her summer job. In taking Valia to the hospital Carmen meets Win (short for Winthrop). She likes Win and he appears to like her, but that is only because he keeps meeting the Good Carmen and does not know what she is really like.

The lives of the girls who stay in town this final summer before college continue to chain out in interesting ways. Carmen, who had to deal with her mother falling in love again in the previous book now has to deal with the shocking news that Christina is pregnant. But when the baby arrives early it is Tibby who is pressed into service as the birth coach. Otherwise Tibby has been dealing with having the clouds lifted from her eyes and noticing that Brian has become a lot more than the geeky guy who plays video games. Meanwhile, off at soccer camp in Pennsylvania where she is working as a coach, Bee discovers that one of the other coaches is Eric, the boy she seduced in the first novel. Obviously, things will be interesting for all four of the girls.

By this third novel I am well aware that the Traveling Pants do not really play a major role in what happens, and this time I would be hard pressed to say they play even a minor role. What is happening instead is that as the girls grow up they are clearly growing apart. In terms of both their contact and their correspondence there is far less in this volume than in the previous ones. Part of this has to do with the fact that they are all home for this summer, or only a state away, but also because each girl has their own overriding concern. For three of the girls that turns out to be a boy and I like that in two of the cases it is a familiar face (I am a big proponent of falling in love with friends rather than strangers). Maybe because Lena's attempt to achieve a breakthrough as an artist is a decidedly different storyline it stands out for me, although it could also be because I have always wanted to be a real artist too.

What I liked most about Brashares' first two novels in the series was the way the Sisterhood supported each other as friends. I especially liked the way that they show up when they need to and say what needs to be said, even when one of them wants to be left alone or does not want to hear what has to be said. So when Tibby, Carmen, Lena and Bee go it alone so much in "Girls in Pants" it was rather diappointing to me. I understand that they are growing up, but it is the growing apart (or what I perceive to be their growing apart) that bothers me. Then again, I am not now nor have I ever been a teenage girl, so it is entirely possibly that this is a totally appropriate and important progression. I could also be at a disadvantage because I have read all three books in about a month and there is something to be said for reading one each year and allowing yourself to grow up a bit more in the interim each year. So I should be in the right frame of mind to read the fourth (and hopefully not final book) when it comes out.

The third installment of the Traveling Pants saga brings the girls ever closer to adulthood as they head off to college, and their lives take off in new directions.

As entertaining as the previous books, this one pushes the believability buttons a little too hard, and some of the scenarios just don't quite sound like real life. The pants begin to fade into the background, yet continue to magically hold the friendship together.

Tibby is the last to discover that Brian has somehow morphed into a hunk, and is blind to his utter devotion for her. She finally makes peace with the memory of her friend Bailey, and helps Carmen's mom through one of the most frightening episodes of her life.

Carmen has to cope with her mother's new life, and make her decision about which college she should attend. She also has the responsibility of looking after Lena's grandmother who's not very pleased to be in the United States, and on top of it all, there's a cool guy that she keeps bumping into, whom she feels is seeing her as someone she's not.

Lena has it pretty rough, as she battles with her father about attending art school, and tries to forget Kostos. She learns to see people as they really are through her drawings, and gets a new impression of Paul.

Bridget has achieved All-American status and is returning to soccer camp, this time as a coach. Things get complicated when she realizes that she knows another of the coaches a little too well.

This book touches on a lot of issues in the growing up process, and although not the best in the series, you'll want to finish it in one sitting.


Amanda Richards, October 30, 2005

"Girls in Pants" is the third installment in Brashares' 'Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants' series. In this novel she demonstrates the fact that she knows her main characters inside and out, giving voice to the plights of teenage girls on the verge of adulthood. The third installment is a worthy addition to the prior novels.

Brashares' novels tell the story of four girlfriends, whose mothers were friends before their birth. Even though their mothers may have lost contact, the girls have remained friends through thick and thin. And they've seen and experienced enough trouble for more than double their lives. "Girls in Pants" finds them in the final summer before they embark for college, when they'll truly be apart for the first time in their lives. Once again, they pass the magical pants back and forth during the summer, always exactly when one girl needs them the most. While two of the girls face new and frightening experiences, the other two must encounter past problems and deal with the ghosts that haunt them.

Brashares crafts a good story. She has developed these characters consistently throughout all three novels, and takes their lives in different, but satisfying directions. Although an adult, she infuses their young voices with the wisdom of teenagers-on-the-cusp. Perhaps their stories are complete, but readers know that there will always be more summers for these magical pants and this diverse group of girls.

after reading the first two pants books, i eagerly awaited the third. i have to admit i was really nervous as i bought the book, hoping it wouldn't turn out to be a ginormous let down. thankfully, it was as good if not better than the first ones. I read the book in about twelve hours, not my record, but i definetly didnt sleep that night. anyway, i highly recommend the third installment because the characters teach valuable lessons to girls my age without us even knowing it.

"Girls in Pants" is the third segment (out of four, apparently) of Ann Brashares's bestselling series about four girls and their magical pair of pants. It is a worthy addition to the collection and will NOT disappoint.

It's the last summer before the girls go away to college and as they cope with this fact, they are each bombarded with problems, relationships, and their pasts. Tibby does not know how to look at her burgeoning feelings for Brian, and her troubles are only furthered when a situation involving her little sister disrupts the...well, the other problems. Carmen discovers that Christina is pregnant, with the baby due to arrive the month she leaves for Williams University. On top of that, she is "grandmother-sitting" a homesick Valia and conveniently discovering love at the elderly woman's hospital (Win, Win, Win). Bee is off to soccer camp again, but this time she's a coach. There she finds that a certain camp counselor from her past is a now a colleague, complete with his gorgeous looks and a girlfriend back home. Finally, Lena, who is trying to get over Kostos while Carmen's stepbrother, Paul awaits her, is forbidden to attend the art school she has been looking forward to (or has she?) for so long. In an art project for a scholarship, she apprehensively probes the emotions of her family , Paul, and those within herself.

Brashares is an artist with words and metaphors. She carefully layers this book with emotion, symbolism, love, humor, friendship, and of course...a pair of magical pants. "Girls in Pants" is a delightful second-to-last installment of the series, sure to bring joy to readers, old and new.

I read all three of the books in the series over the same weekend - I just couldn't get enough of them! They may be intended for a younger audience (I am 30), but so many of the observations by the characters were remarkably poignant. Carmen, for example, states that she always hated the excuse "Life's too short" because when you act on that basis, you may spend the rest of your life being punished for that action. Some of the smaller scenes were also very effective. For example, when Tibby asks the lonely woman who works in the theater to go to dinner with her, she learns that, while it is nice gesture, not everyone wants to be "helped" or taken out of her comfort zone. It is scenes like this that prevent the book from being cliched or preachy.

Even the romances, while somewhat predictable, are a welcome reminder that all it takes is the anticipation of a first kiss to give you goosebumps - you don't need a scene in a rated-R movie. These books made me want to call up all of my friends over the years and thank them for having a profound effect on my life.

Each and every person in the world must adapt and come to terms with certain challenges that appear in front of them during their lives. In the third "Sisterhood" book our four main characters, Lena, Carmen, Bridget and Tibby face the idea of loosing their childhood bond and moving on into the next stage of their lives. This is the same challenge facing a lot of girls today in the sense that moving from middle to high school can tear apart some of the most treasured friendships. It is scary to face the unknown when you have become so accustomed to the normal everyday routine. In the fictional story of Girls in Pants by Ann Brashares, the four girls take off on their own summer adventures while dealing with the idea of spending their last summer together.
The first two books in this series were considered some of the best young adult novels by many well-known magazines. So you would expect the newest one to hold up to the same standards, right? Wrong! Even though this book was full of well-developed characters and an interesting plot line, I believe it lacked the same magic the first two books had. I thought that the main point of writing these stories was to tell about the girl's friendship through the fantastic "traveling" pants, but in this book the pants didn't seem to be of that much importance. The girls have now matured into their young adult selves and no longer make the silly little mistakes they did as children. But that was part of what made the stories such fun!
In book three, Bridget is extremely levelheaded towards Eric, the man of her dreams, and plays it safe not allowing herself to feel the same passion for him. Lena almost seems completely dead. She shows no emotion but sadness and must find her heart again through the enchantment of art. Tibby just doesn't want anything to change. She will not accept anyone new into her life for fear of loosing them. Throughout the entire story she is battling to let herself accept this new stage in her life. Carmen's mother has dropped the news that she will be having a baby, and Carmen is afraid that this will wipe her out of the picture. In all of these situations you can tell the circumstances are hard on the girls, but they just don't show the same emotion that they expressed in the first two books. This story was more routine, following the same outline most stories do: introduce character, present conflict, resolve conflict, live happily ever after. Where is the drama? Where is the magic of the pants? And most importantly, where is the intense supportive friendship these girls share? You can identify that the friendship is there, however, you just can't sense its fire in this book.
Girls in Pants lacks the quirky charm of the first two books in the series, but I still enjoyed finding out how each of the girl's lives was resolved. I do look forward to a fourth book in the series exploring the "sisterhood" after their high school days.

Tibby, Carmen, Lena, and Bridget, the closer-than-sister friends from two previous books, are back for the last summer before they go to college. Boyfriends and college are the two largest issues in this book, with Tibby and Carmen beginning new romances, and Lena and Bridget mourning over old ones. There are also family problems--Tibby's sister has an accident, and Carmen's mom becomes pregnant, but the girls seem better able to face problems with growing maturity. As always they pass around the pants and support one another when they have problems, but it is evident that they are ready to launch into a new world with new friends and growing insight. This is the third of a wonderful coming-of-age series.