I am lumping these two books together, The Second Summer of the Sisterhood and Girls in Pants (The Third Summer of the Sisterhood) by Ann Brashares, because I read them back to back. Literally; I closed one, picked up the next and started it. I finished the two of them in about 24 hours.
I enjoyed the Second Summer almost as much as the first. The girls, individually, get themselves all confused and messed up. Each one faces a crisis. The pants help sometimes and sometimes not. In the end, each girl figures something out about herself and grows a bit. One becomes more likable, one less so. But in some way, the reader can still identify with each of the girls.
The Third Summer is their last as "kids". They are all off to college at the end of this summer. I didn't enjoy this one quite as much, but it was still entertaining and I would recommend it. In the third installment, two of the girls branch into each other's families a bit. One works for the summer babysitting another's grandmother. One comes to the rescue at a most important time for another's mother. It was an interesting twist and one that was quite realistic. You can't love someone as much as these girls love each other and not be involved with the other people that are so important in their lives.
The one thing that I love about these books is that nothing comes between these girls. They adore one another but are not so far into each other's business to hurt one another. They listen and help and support without jealousy or vanity. I don't believe that is typical of high school friendships; I believe it takes more mature individuals to love like that. I love that aspect of the book though because I can so completely relate to it, having a group of friends like that myself.
I am very interested to see where the next summer goes with the girls, and so I have already picked up the fourth and final installment.
Happy Reading!
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