READ EXCERPT: 'The Second Summer of the Sisterhood,' by Ann Brashares

Jan. 22 -- Four 16-year-old girls, all best friends, begin their summers, hoping for romance, friendship and the magic of thrift-store jeans in The Second Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares.

Read the excerpt from The Second Summer of the Sisterhood, posted below.

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With a bit of last summer's sand in their pockets, the Traveling Pants and the sisterhood that wears them embark on their sixteenth summer.

"Constant use had not worn ragged the fabric of their friendship." — Dorothy Parker "Nothing is too wonderful to be true." — Michael Faraday

Prologue

Once there were four girls who shared a pair of pants. The girls were all different sizes and shapes, and yet the pants fit each of them. You may think this is a suburban myth. But I know it's true, because I am one of them — one of the sisters of the Traveling Pants.

We discovered their magic last summer, purely by accident. The four of us were splitting up for the first time in our lives. Carmen had gotten them from a secondhand place without even bothering to try them on. She was going to throw them away, but by chance, Tibby spotted them. First Tibby tried them; then me, Lena; then Bridget; then Carmen.

By the time Carmen pulled them on, we knew something extraordinary was happening. If the same pants fit — and I mean really fit — the four of us, they aren't ordinary. They don't belong completely to the world of things you can see and touch. My sister, Effie, claims I don't believe in magic, and maybe I didn't then. But after the first summer of the Traveling Pants, I do.

The Traveling Pants are not only the most beautiful pair of jeans that ever existed, they are kind, comforting, and wise. And also they make you look really good. We, the members of the Sisterhood, were friends before the Traveling Pants. We've known each other since before we were born. Our mothers were all in the same pregnancy aerobics class. I feel this explains something about us. We all have in common that we got bounced on our fetal heads too much.