The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

First I saw the film based on the book The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and then I read the first two books in the published trilogy.

The movie was really great. It was a movie that you could take your niece or your grandma to and had great acting by several superb young actresses. I thought America Ferrera was terrific as Carmen (she was also in the great Real Women Have Curves, and Amber Tamblyn, late of Joan of Arcadia, was amazing, as always. I'm always waiting for Alexis Bledel (Rory Gilmore) to bust out of her demure, pretty box, and I heard she did so in Sin City, which I didn't see because of the violence. She's good at being demure and pretty, though, so her performance here is pretty solid.

Then I bought the books to read and read them in one day while traveling recently, and they're really pretty good. I would have loved them when I was 15 or so. Great portrayals of adolescent friendship, and characters that are believable enough and different enough for most readers to find someone to relate to.