(The Pants first came to us at the perfect moment. That is, when we were splitting up for the first time. It was two summers ago when they first worked their magic, and last summer when they shook up our lives once again. You see, we don?t wear the Pants year-round. We let them rest so they are extra powerful when summer comes. (There was the time this spring when Carmen wore them to her mom's wedding, but that was a special case.)

Now we?re facing our last summer together. In September we go to college. And it's not like one of those TV shows where all of us magically turn up at the same college. We?re going to four different colleges in four different cities (but all within four hours of one another?that was our one rule). We?re headed off to start our real lives.

Tomorrow night at Gilda's we?ll launch the Pants on their third summer voyage. Tomorrow begins the time of our lives. It's when we?ll need our Pants the most.


From the Hardcover edition.

Ages 12 and up. Best buds Tibby, Carmen, Lena and Bridget are back with their magical pair of shared jeans in Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood. Each summer brings new and difficult challenges, as the perennially separated friends discover afresh this last season before college. Tibby struggles with the idea of close friend Brian becoming her boyfriend, and their fragile relationship is soon tested by a tragedy in her immediate family. Carmen doesn?t know how to react when she finds out that her middle-aged mom is pregnant, and Bridget is unpleasantly surprised to be reunited with the boy who broke her heart two summers ago. Finally, Lena, still coming to terms with the loss of her first love, tries to convince her strict father that art school is a better career path than Greek restaurant management. But through every crisis, each girl is assured of the love and support of the created sisterhood when she pulls on the denim armor of the cherished, and by now, a bit fragrant ("Rule # 1. You must never wash the Pants.") Traveling Pants.

Full of homey platitudes about life, love and the pursuit of perfect jeans, Girls in Pants occasionally reads like a lengthy Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul entry. But often that's precisely the kind of friendly reassurance female readers are looking for, and fans of the wildly popular series who?ve journeyed every summer with the "Septembers" will find much to laugh and cry about in this volume. --Jennifer Hubert

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