The Second Summer of the Sisterhood (2003) continues with the girls’ adventurous second summer together where Carmen, Lena, Tibby, and Bridget experience more life changes and deal with the ups and downs of growing up.
Summary of The Second Summer of the Sisterhood
Carmen undergoes more changes in her family life. Carmen’s mother Christina is dating David from work and Carmen thinks that her mother is making a fool of herself. Bridget impulsively travels to Alabama after discovering unopened letters from her grandmother which her father has been keeping from her. While in Alabama, Bridget intends to uncover her past but at a safe distance.
After her break up with Kostos, Lena has spent months hiding from love. However, during the summer, Kostos comes to Maryland for a visit but abruptly returns to Greece. When the Kalagaris family travel to Greece for Bapi’s funeral, Lena learns a shocking, heartbreaking secret about Kostos. Tibby attends a summer program at a college in Virginia. There she hopes to make a movie that she can be proud of. Her first attempts get off to a shaky start, but she finally makes a movie in honor of her friend Bailey, who was able to look beyond appearances.
Reactions to The Second Summer of the Sisterhood
Watching Carmen react to more family changes is exhausting but understandable. In The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Carmen discovered that her father was getting married and gained a whole new family. This summer Carmen’s mother is dating. Carmen is angry because her mother wears the Pants on a date. Carmen pulls a stunt by neglecting to tell her mother that David called. From an adult prospective, I thought that Carmen’s action was selfish and childish. This reminded me of when she threw a rock through her father’s window in the previous novel.
My heart broke for Lena when she learned Kostos’s secret. I wasn’t sure why they broke up in the first place, besides the long distance factor. I couldn’t understand why Tibby didn’t make the movie about Bailey in the first place. I knew right away that the movie about her mom was not her best work. I felt like Tibby was avoiding something by not putting her best foot forward. Maybe she thought it would be too painful to think about Bailey.
I thought that The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was a nice introduction to the series, but it took awhile for the story to develop. However, in The Second Summer of the Sisterhood, the storyline moved much faster and the events seemed to be more exciting.
Source:
Brashares, Ann. The Second Summer of the Sisterhood. 2003. Alloy. ISBN: (0-385-738105-1).
