Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood [Anglais] [Relié]

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.