1. The Second Summer of the Sisterhood By: Ann Brashares Published by: Delacorte Press © 2003 in New York, New York Fiction: 373 pages

2. 411 on Ann Brashares Ann Brashares grew up in Chevy Chase, Maryland. She has three brothers. As a child, she attended a school in the D.C area called Sidwell Friends. She studied Philosophy at Barnard College which is part of Columbia University in New York City. Ann took a year off after college to work as an editor because she needed the money to finish studying philosophy at graduate school. She loved her job as an editor so much, that she never went back to graduate school. Instead, she remained in New York City and worked as an editor for many years. Ann currently lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband, Jacob Collins. He is an artist, and they now have three children, Sam, Nathaniel, and Susannah.

3. Other books written by Ann Brashares The Second Summer of the Sisterhood is the second out of three books Ann Brashares has written about four friends who all fit into a pair of special pants. Wherever they are, the pants are what keeps them united. The first of the three books is called The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. This book was on the New York Times Bestseller list. The third book is entitled Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood. This book hasn’t come out yet, but it is suppose to appear in stores in January of 2005. So far, these three books are the only books Ann Brashares has written.

4. Setting of the book There is not really a set setting of this book. This book is split up between the lives of four girls, and each one of them is in a different place this summer. Bridget is in a very small soccer playing town in Alabama. Carmen stays at home (location unknown). Tibby goes off to college (unknown) to enroll in a film program. Lastly, Lena, who stays at home for the first half of the book, but then travels to Oia, Greece, when something tragic happens.

5. Main Characters Bridget~ Has changed a lot from the last book. She use to be a great soccer player, very slim and muscular, with white blond hair. She is now overweight, has brown black dyed hair, and does not play any sport. All of this due to a horrible experience with a camp counselor last summer. Carmen~ A whiner. Carmen can whine about anything. She is definitely the most emotional of the four. Tibby~ Lover of film, Tibby is the most forward thinking in the bunch. Last summer, her film-helping friend died of cancer, and her Guinea Pig died of old age. Now she is learning how to cope with her sadness. Lena~ A very pretty Greek girl. She is very close to her grandfather, even though they do not speak the same language. Lena is trying hard to get over her ex-boyfriend, Kostos, who lives in Oia; but she’s having no luck.

6. Major Themes for Bridget Last year, Bridget went to a soccer camp for the summer. The relationship she had with a camp counselor there, is what made her give up soccer, dye her hair, and start living a different life. This summer, Bridget realizes that the life she is now living, was not meant for her. Little by little, she changes back to how she use to be. The outgoing, risk- taking, soccer-playing, athlete. Bridget learns a lot about herself throughout the story.

7. Major themes for Carmen Carmen’s parents a divorced, so she lives with her mom. Last summer, Carmen had a rude awakening when she went to visit her dad. Not only had he gotten married without telling her, but he married a rather rich and snobby lady who had two teenagers. Her dad had not told her about any of it until she’d seen it with her own eyes. This summer was not much different. Carmen’s mom, who is usually a lot like Carmen and hates work, starts going out with this guy from where she works. Carmen doesn’t like him from the start, but then when her mom borrows the traveling pants for a date with out permission, Carmen gets nasty.

8. Major themes for Tibby Tibby was stuck at home all summer. This is what really got her into movie making. She made a documentary with her friend, Baily. At the end of the summer, Baily died of cancer. A few days later, Tibby’s guinea pig died of old age. Last summer was really hard on Tibby. So this summer, she’s off to college to work on a movie that may be produced. She gets off to a bad start with the wrong friends, though. Tibby has to try to make her own kind of movie without loosing her “cool friends.”

9. Major Themes for Lena Last summer, Lena traveled to Oia, Greece, to visit her Grandma and Grandpa. There, she fell in love with a boy named Kostos. They kept in contact for a while, but then Lena decided to cut it off. This summer, she is trying to get over Kostos. He comes to visit her, and they get back together. But then something horrible happens, and he has to go back to Oia. Lena spends the summer working at an old lady clothing store, while wondering what is going on with her and Kostos.

10. Bridget’s Story At the start of the summer, Bridget decides to go to Alabama, to see her long lost Grandma Greta. Bridget’s father had nothing to do with Greta, ever since Bee’s mom died. Now Bridget finds four letters from Greta to her, that she never got. In Bee’s anger, she decides to go to Alabama to visit Greta. However once she gets there, she realizes that Greta doesn’t recognize her, so she pretends to be a girl called Gilda. Bee comes to the house every day, goes through and cleans up some of the attic, has lunch, and goes back to the hotel. Every day, by cleaning up the attic, and talking to Greta, Bee learns more and more about her family. She is reliving the past, and focusing on how she use to be. Once the traveling pants come along to her, she tries them on, but they don’t fit! This is when Bee sees that she’s not being true to herself. She must change back to the was she once was. Little by little, Bee becomes herself again. She starts playing soccer, and running everyday; she grows the dye out of her hair; and she becomes just as competitive, flirtatious, and headstrong and she use to be. By the time she leaves, everyone knows who she really is.

11. Carmen’s Story Carmen has always been temperamental. ALWAYS. So you can only imagine how mad she gets when he mom borrows the traveling pants for a date. Carmen and her mom, who are usually very close, are in a constant fight. Carmen’s mom really likes this guy, and wants to spend a lot of time with him, but Carmen doesn’t trust him. It gets so bad that her mom locks herself in her room for days with barely any food. This is when Carmen sees the mess she’s made. She gets them back together, and apologizes. Meanwhile, she’s dealing with her own problems. The pants don’t seem to be bringing their usual luck to her. After a while, Carmen realizes that is she doesn’t have the right attitude, then the pants will not do anything special for her. Understanding this fixes all her problems.

12. Tibby’s Story From the time she laid eyes on that group of friends, Tibby was destined for trouble. These kids, although they appear funny and happy, are really unkind and judgmental. They don’t except Tibby’s friends at all. In fact, they make fun of them. Anyway, the project for this summer class is to make a movie. Tibby wanted to make a movie on her mother, and how busy she was. Tib got a few clips on her asking her mom if now was a good time, and her mom continuing to say “No Tibby, not now, LATER!” In an agitated tone. Tibby showed these to her new friends. “Perfect!” said one, “You’re so using that” said another. So Tibby made the movie out of her mom constantly blowing her off, thinking that her mom would be too busy to come to the movie opening. Surprisingly, her mom came, though. Tibby saw how hurt her mom and friends were, and decided to ditch her “cool friends”.

13. Lena’s Story This summer, while Lena was trying to get Kostos out of her mind, she was shocked when he turned up at her front door, after not seeing him for a year. Kostos and Lena didn’t talk at all the first two times they see each other, but then Lena realized she still loved Kostos, and they get back together. They spent every minute they could together. However, all of a sudden he had to go back to Greece, and he wouldn’t tell Lena why. A few weeks later, Lena’s grandpa died. Lena and her family traveled all the way to Greece the next day to go to the funeral. Lena sees Kostos with a girl Lena had never seen before. The minister comes up to Lena, and introduces Kostos, and his new wife. It ends up that during the time Kostos and Lena were not going out, Kostos went out with this other girl three times. During this time, Kostos impregnated her, and now that she knew she was pregnant, it was Kostos’

14. My Reaction to the Book I really enjoyed this book. Other then having a magical pair of pants, the things these girls go through are a lot like the things my friends and I go through. I consider myself a lot like Bee. Its nice to be able to relate to a character, and see where some decisions can get you. I liked how Tibby got in with the wrong crowd at first, but then set herself straight when she saw that they were no good. Every girl deals with this sort of thing sometime in their life.

15. Why you Should Read it This book is obviously for girls, rather then guys. It’s a great book to read over the summer! You can learn a lot about true friendship through this book. Every girl can relate to this book in some way or another.