The Second Summer of the Sisterhood
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| The Second Summer of the Sisterhood | |
| Author | Ann Brashares |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants |
| Genre(s) | Young adult novel |
| Publisher | Delacorte Press |
| Publication date | April 2003 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 400 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 978-0385729345 (first edition, hardback) |
| Preceded by | The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants |
| Followed by | Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood |
The Second Summer of the Sisterhood is a novel written in 2003 by acclaimed author Ann Brashares. The story continues the adventures of four best friends who own a magical pair of jeans that fit all of them, even though they are different sizes. During the summer, the girls share the pants. The Second Summer of the Sisterhood is the second in a series of four books: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood, and Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
Tibby, Lena, Carmen and Bridget are back for another summer with the magical pants from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. The jeans from the resale shop that look great on all four best friends have been waiting for another summer. New decorations and words will be added to the remains of last year's events, as documented on the magical denim.
The girls have all been best friends for many years, though they love each other as sisters. Over the past few years, and continuing through the rest of the series, the girls have found themselves changing as various issues confront them. Bridget has not recovered from her relationship with Eric Richman last summer and decides to spend this summer in Alabama with her long-estranged maternal grandmother. She wants to rediscover herself and her love of soccer. Carmen is dismayed to find that her mother is dating again, just as she herself is going on her very first date. Tibby is spending the summer at film camp, where she wants to fit in and needs the Pants to help her determine who is sincere and who is phony. Lena is shocked when Kostos, her Greek boyfriend from last summer, comes to America and they fall in love all over again. She also learns that her mother experienced long-distance heartbreak when she was Lena's age, though she doesn't want to talk about it. Each girl needs the Pants and each other to continue growing their unique identities.
It has been reported that they are in current production of the sequel for the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. It will be launched in August 2008.
[edit] Characters
[edit] The Sisterhood
- Lena Kaligaris, sometimes called Lenny, is a beautiful, quiet, and shy artist of Greek heritage. She has a sister, Effie, who is fifteen months younger. Lena and Effie spent last summer with their paternal grandparents in Santorini, Greece, where Lena met and fell in love with Kostos. They sent letters back and forth until January, when Lena ended their correspondence. She is shocked, then elated, when Kostos visits America during this summer. He has to work outside of town during the week but he comes back on the weekends to be with Lena. The first time they sit meet during the night they end up rolling around in the wet grass, kissing for hours. This happens the next weekend, and the weekend after that the relationship elates to the two of them picking up some food at a local supermarket and spending a day at a memorial, where they end up lying on top of each other, as Kostos slowly pulls off her shirt, kissing her private skin, and then pulls off her bra and she pulls off his shirt, and they lie there, kissing for hours. He also tells her he wants to do "this" for real some time. Then, suddenly, something comes up and he has to leave, leaving her behind to wonder what was wrong. After she goes back to Greece with her family because of her Bapi having a stroke, then passing away, she is told that Kostos is married because he thought he got his temporary girlfriend pregnant when he was depressed five months ago right after Lena had broken up with him. When she found out, he told her he didn't love the other girl, but that he had to be a gentleman and marry her. He made sure to let Lena know, though, that he had never stopped loving her, and he never would.
- Tibby Rollins is the rebellious daughter of former radicals. Her interest in filmmaking leads her to spend the summer taking a course at Williamston College. In her efforts to impress two jaded classmates, she makes a hurtful movie about her mother and ignores her close friend Brian McBrian, who visits her at college to be with her, but uses the memory of her friend Bailey Graffman, who died of leukemia last summer, to make things right.
- Bridget "Bee" Vreeland is a bold, energetic soccer star who is described as "single-minded to the point of recklessness." Still reeling from her mother's suicide six and a half years ago, she journeys to Alabama to meet her maternal grandmother, Greta Randolph, who tried to correspond with Bridget and her twin brother, Perry, after her mother's death. Her and Greta become very close, and eventually come to terms where they both know of Bee's secret, which was that Bee was acting as a different person.
- Carmen Lucille Lowell is the sensitive and caring half-Puerto Rican "with the bad temper." Her parents are divorced, and she lives with her mother, Christina. This summer, she is angry and frightened when her mother's relationship with David, a coworker, seems to be going in the direction as her awkward relationship with a guy named Porter.
[edit] From Santorini, Greece
- Valia and Bapi Kaligaris are Lena and Effie's grandparents. Valia is talkative and spirited, like Effie, while Bapi is quiet and introspective like Lena. Bapi dies of a stroke at the end of the summer.
- Kostos Dounas lives with his paternal grandparents in Santorini. He and Lena fell in love at the end of last summer, but she broke off their correspondence because she wanted to feel like her life "belonged to just her again," not wanting to live her life missing Kostos and yearning to spend time with him. They reunite briefly this summer, which ultimately ends in more heartbreak because she finds out that when she broke up with him he had sex with another girl, got her pregnant, and now feels that he must marry her like a true gentleman. But later divorces this woman and sets out to find Lena and propose to her.
[edit] In Bethesda, Maryland
- Brian McBrian is a video game aficionado who spent hours every day playing Dragon Master at 7-Eleven, until he met Tibby last summer and began spending most of his time with her. He has an unhappy home life with his mother and abusive stepfather, whom his mother married after his father died. He really loves Tibby but won't confront her. But later reveals his love for her.
- Porter is Carmen's classmate with whom she goes on a few dates over the summer. Although he genuinely likes her, Carmen is too distracted by her mother's romance and her aspirations for an accessory-like "Boyfriend" to start much of a relationship with him.
[edit] At Williamston College
- Alex is a real b*tch who hates Brian. But Tibby realizes she wants Brian.
- Maura is Alex's friend and a film student from New York City. She wears pink glasses. Tibby describes her as a "yeah-girl," who goes along with the majority.
- Vanessa is the RA of the dorm where Tibby and Maura live for the summer. Maura makes fun of the number of stuffed animals in her room, but when Vanessa reveals that she makes and sews them herself, Tibby begins to consider Vanessa, not Maura, the artist.
[edit] Family members of the Sisterhood
- Georgos "George" Kaligaris is Lena's strict Greek father. Although his parents owned a restaurant in Greece, he is a lawyer. He has spent his adult life trying to repress his Greek heritage, until his father dies at the end of the summer.
- Ariadne "Ari" Kaligaris is Lena's mother, an ambitious Greek woman who put herself through school to become a social worker. She had a lengthy, long-distance romance with a man called Eugene when she was younger. Shortly after they broke up, she met and married Lena's father.
- Effie Kaligaris is Lena's extroverted sister, fifteen months younger. Effie gives Lena courage and comfort at times when the Sisterhood isn't there. Effie loves having boys be around her.
- Franz Vreeland is Bridget's father, a former history professor and a teacher at a private high school. When bridget was little, his favorite part of the day was when she would put his socks on for him because he doesn't have good things in his life since his wife died. He hasn't been very close to Bridget in her teenage years.
- Marlene "Marly" Randolph Vreeland is Bridget's late mother, who died six and a half years ago due to effects of bipolar disorder.
- Perry Vreeland is Bridget's twin brother who shared a childhood with the Sisterhood but grew up to be a reclusive teenager. He was named for Marly's brother, Pervis Randolph.
- Christina Lowell is Carmen's 38-year-old mother. She is Puerto Rican and works as a secretary for a law firm. She has never seriously dated since her divorce almost ten years ago, until this summer.
- Mr. Rollins is Tibby's father. He is a lawyer who used to work as a public defender. He is not a major character. Although Tibby told Bailey in the first book that her parents were nineteen when she was born, in this book she says that his 40th birthday has passed.
- Alice Tomko-Rollins is Tibby's 35-year-old mother, who was a hippie and a sculptor while Tibby was young. She is embarrassed by Tibby when she makes an embarrassing movie about her mother that is shown at open house at Williamston College not expecting her mom to be there.
- Nicky and Katherine Rollins are Tibby's younger siblings.
[edit] In South Carolina
- Albert 'Al' Lowell is Carmen's father. He married Lydia Rodman last summer.
- Lydia Lowell is Al's wife and the mother of Carmen's stepsiblings, Paul and Krista.
- Paul Rodman is two years older than Carmen and has an alcoholic father. He attends the University of Pennsylvania, his father's alma mater. He is serious and quiet, although he does pledge a fraternity. At the end of the summer, he meets Lena at a restaurant, and seems fascinated by her. They seem to have their own quiet chemistry.
- Krista Rodman is Carmen's age. She and Carmen did not get along when they met last summer, but this summer Krista runs away to Bethesda in an effort to convince her mother that she wants to have her own identity.
[edit] In Alabama
- Greta Randolph is Bridget's grandmother who, like Bridget's mother, suffers from diabetes. Greta was cut off from Bridget because of her bad relationship with Bridget's father. Over the summer, Bridget takes the name Gilda Tomko (combining the names of the gym where the Septembers first met and Tibby's mother's maiden name) to meet and work for Greta and obtain information about her mother. Greta, who was never fooled by the alias, helps Bridget discover her mother's past.
- Billy Kline is Bridget's childhood friend, fellow soccer player, and summer romance. He used to be her best friend when she visited Alabama during summers when Marly was still alive.
[edit] External links
- Sisterhood Central from Random House
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