Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Brashares)

Book Reviews
First novelist Brashares successfully creates four distinct characters, each with her own story line, and ties them together with a creative device: a pair of pants purchased in a thrift shop. .... [A]n outstanding and vivid book that will stay with readers for a long time. Readers will hope that Brashares chronicles the sisterhood for volumes to come. (Ages 12-up.)
Publishers Weekly

Any story that begins "Once upon a time..." has to be good, and this one is. It is hard to imagine that one pair of thrift shop jeans could play such an important role in the lives of four teenage girls.... "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" is born when the girls decide to send the jeans to each other over the summer.
Rita Karr - Children's Literature

Fun book! I have read many YA novels that focus on changing friendships, but never one that revolves around a pair of magical pants. I thought that the comparison between pants that make all wearers look and feel good and friendship was insightful and creative.... [E]njoyable and meaningful.... (Hard to imagine it being any better written.) —Deana Rutherford, Teen Reviewer.
VOYA

Young teens will identify with one, or even all four, of these interesting, funny young women, and they'll be on the lookout for their own pair of traveling pants. —Frances Bradburn
Booklist

During their 15th summer, four girls who have been lifelong friends spend the season apart. In a summer's launch ceremony, they decide to pass along among themselves a pair of thrift shop jeans.... While the traveling pants themselves seem rather artificial, [the] emotions and the developments they inspire in the individuals and in their relationships ring absolutely true (Grade 9 & up). —Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA
School Library Journal

In this feel-good novel with substance, four teenage girls, friends since they were all born just weeks apart, are about to embark on their first summer as separate young women.... The pants become a metaphor for the young women finding their own strength in the face of new love, unexpected friendships and death, a father's remarriage, and a reckless relationship-and without their best friends.
Kirkus Reviews