The Second Summer of the Sisterhood (ISBN 0385908520)

Amazon.com Review:
Teens who loved Ann Brashares's The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2001) will cheer its equally riveting sequel The Second Summer of the Sisterhood. As in the first novel, four teen girls who have known each other since birth (their moms shared a pregnancy aerobics class) further forge their bond of friendship through a pair of thrift-store jeans that magically, impossibly, fits them all perfectly. Like the summer before, Carmen, Bridget, Tibby, and Lena share their individual adventures with the Pants collective, creating an engaging, kaleidoscopic narrative of four voices. This summer, Tibby attends a film program in Virginia and Bridget (Bee), whose mother has died, impulsively jets off to Alabama to get reacquainted with her estranged grandmother. Lovely Lena tries to protect herself from the heartbreak of loving her long-distance Greek god boyfriend Kostos, and Carmen deals (poorly) with her mother dating again and having the nerve to borrow the Pants! The Second Summer, while breezy and fun to read, deals seriously with love lost and found, death, and finding the courage to live honestly. The teens' lessons are often painful, but the Sisterhood prevails. Quotations from luminaries such as Charlie Brown ("Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love") to Nelson Mandela ("There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered") open each chapter and cleverly reflect the novel's many moods. (Ages 12 and older) --Karin Snelson

A Letdown:
After the fantastic first appearance of this book, (The first summer of the sisterhood) this book was a bit of a letdown. The only character really interesting to read about was Bridget, and some of the action between Kostos and Lena is a little too mature for the young teen. I reccomend the first of the books, but the others are not nearly as good.

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Second Summer:
I loved this book. I read the Original Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (after I saw the movie, which I loved)and decided I need to read all of them. I highly recommend this book as well as the previous one. You will love reading about these four girls who basically have been together since they were all in their mother's wombs and have grown into very different teenage girls. The relationship they have with one another is so wonderful and special. I can't wait till I read the rest of them, which I just ordered.

Great Follow Up to the first!:
I was so excited when this came out but a bit disappointed with the ending. I can't wait to read the 3rd book!

Better than the first:
I loved this book. It had all the charm of the first book, but really fleshes out the characters further.

Another great summer:
Much to my surprise, this was every bit as good as the first one. The interweaving of the girls' mothers as a parallel Sisterhood was very effectively done, and never more so than when the Traveling Pants almost blurred the distinction between the two groups (I won't say more so as to keep from spoiling a very good scene). Bridget's rediscovery of her mother and reconstruction of herself is the best and most emotionally powerful of the story threads, although all are generally well-done. The only place I think Brashares tends to miss is when she reaches for bold emotions. All of her intended sharp notes - and Tibby gets more than her fair share - tend to come off flat. It's in the small, soft-touch, life-affirming moments that Brashares is at her best, and I think it's interesting to see that Bailey is still her strongest character, even in a book where she doesn't (can't) make an actual appearance. The real howler of the book, though, is the resolution of Lena's story. To avoid spoilers I won't say much more, but the entire thing descends into a mess by the end. It's both forced and deeply unsatisfactory, which is an unfortunate blemish on an otherwise terrific book.