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Booktalk
#1
Believe it or not, Carmen,
Tibby, Lena and Bridget have been friends since before they were born.
Their moms, who met at a class for pregnant ladies, all gave birth the
same month and then they hung out together with their new babies. And even
though their mothers may’ve drifted apart, the girls have been best friends
ever since.
But this summer that friendship
will be tested as the four girls are split up for the first time. Carmen
is going away to South Carolina to be with her dad, Tibby’s stuck at home
working at Wal-Mart’s, Lena’s heading out to a tiny Greek Island and Bridget’s
attending an elite soccer camp in Baja California.
Enter, the traveling pants:
an unusual pair of jeans that seems to make any girl who wears it look
her hottest, Bridget may be long, lean & athletic, Tibby small and
skinny, Lena slim and curvy, and Carmen, well, she’s blessed with a J-Lo-wide
rear end--yet when they try the pants on—wow! Each girl will take her turn
that summer—no more than a week—with the pants, before passing them on.
And she has to write and tell just what she’s been up to while wearing
them!
Carmen, Tibby, Lena and Bridget
soon discover that somehow, wearing those jeans inspires them to try things
they’d barely dreamed of. But the consequences of those choices—wild, outrageous,
brave or sexy—will upend their lives.
Read about four best friends
and one amazing summer—read The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann
Brasheres
[Booktalker’s note: I’ve changed
Wallman’s to Wal-Mart for the talk as that’s instantly identifiable—and
clearly the work environment Brasheres was describing]
(by Kirsten Edwards of King
County Library System for Evergreen
Young Adult Book Award, 2003-2004.)
Booktalk #2
Carmen, Lena, Tibby and Bridget
were all born within a month of each other. The girls are separated for
the first time during the summer between their fifteenth and sixteenth
birthdays. Carmen has bought a second hand pair of jeans which appear to
be magical as they fit each girl, even though they are all different sizes.
The girls decide to send the pants to each other during the summer and
make up a set of rules when wearing the pants. Off they go in all directions
- Greece, South Carolina, and Baja California. Only Tibby languishes at
home. The pants follow with gathering stories and experiences that forever
change the girls' lives. (Jean B. Bellavance for Pennsylvania
Young Reader's Choice Awards, 2003-2004)
Booktalk #3
Lena, Tibby, Bridget and Carmen
have been best friends all their lives. Well, actually, they've been
friends since before they were born. You see, their mothers were
in birth class together and the girls were all born a few weeks apart.
As the years went by, the mothers drifted apart but the girls remained
friends. This summer will see them separate for the first time.
Lena will be going to Greece to stay with her Grandmother. Bridget
is going to soccer camp in Baja California. Carmen is going to visit
her Dad in South Carolina. And Tibby is staying home. As the
girls spend their last night together, they notice an old pair of jeans
that Carmen bought in a thrift store. As each girl tries on the jeans,
they note a bit of magic. Even though the girls are different sizes
and shapes, the jeans seem to fit them each perfectly. They must
be magic! The girls decide that the jeans need to travel between
the girls during the summer and carry their stories to each other.
Follow the girls' adventures as they tell their stories to the Sisterhood
of the Traveling Pants.
Booktalk #4
Once upon a time there was
a pair of pants. They were an essential kind of pants-jeans, naturally,
blue but not that stiff, new blue that you see so often on the first day
of school, but a soft changeable blue with extra fading at the knees and
the seat and white wavelets at the cuffs. We bought the pants at a thrift
shop. They were only $3.49 plus tax; I didn't even try them on, because
I wasn't serious about owning them. Effie bought a little mod dress that
was aggressively antiprom. Lena found a pair of beat-up loafers that looked
like they'd belonged to somebody's great uncle. Lena has big feet, like
nine and one half. They were the only part of her that isn't perfect. When
we got home, I put them in the back of the closet and forgot about them.
The afternoon before we went
our different ways for the summer, we got together. The four of us are
so close that we form a single complete person, rather than four separate
ones. We settle into types. Bridget, the athlete, Lena, the beauty, Tibby,
the Rebel and me Carmen, the What??? The one with the bad temper. You want
to know what our secret is; we are nice to one another. My Mother says
that it won't stay like this, but I believe it will. The pants are like
an omen. They stand for the promise we made to one another that no matter
what happens we stick together. We found out that the pants all made us
look confident, beautiful and sexy. Even though all of us were different
heights and builds. So we formed the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.
We wrote up a bunch of rules, the main one being that you could only keep
the pants for one week, and that they could never be washed. So they would
make the rounds at least twice before the end of the summer and then we
would get together to relate the adventures we had while wearing the pants.
So Lena left for Greece to visit her grandparents, Bridget went to a soccer
camp, in Baja, California, Tibby will stay at home to work for minimum
wage at Wallman's and I am going to visit my divorced Dad in South Carolina.
What happened that eventful
summer? Read The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.
Marilyn Bunker for The
Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award
Booktalk #5
Four teen friends shop for
clothes. Pretty ordinary, don't you think? But in this story they discover
and buy a remarkable pair of pants at a thrift shop. The jeans look great
on each one of them, even though the teens are not alike in size, body
type, or style, or personality.
The pants make each girl feel
confident, beautiful, and sexy!
Even though they are going
different ways for the summer, the girls decide to share the magic by each
having the pants for part of the time, and then mailing them on to the
next. At the end of the summer, they'll get together to relate their adventures.
Lena heads to Greece to visit
her grandparents, Bridget goes to soccer camp in Baja California, and Carmen
leaves to visit her divorced dad in South Carolina. Tibby feels sentenced
as she stays home to work a minimum wage summer job.
Each girl will have new experiences,
not all of which will be thrilling and enjoyable. Each will mature and
develop greater insight into herself, love, and friendship. And each will
find that the pants are indeed 'magic.'
Marge Erickson Freeburn for
The
Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award
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