Who is the narrator, can she or he read minds, and, more importantly, can we trust her or him?
First Person Central Narrator; Third Person (Limited Omniscient)
This book is unique because the point of view is constantly changing—kind of like how the Pants are constantly changing their owners. We are constantly shifting around between fist person and third person perspectives, which helps us get a sense of each girl's experience as their summer adventures unfold.
Of all the girls, Carmen spends the most time running the show as the first person narrator. Both the Prologue and Epilogue are all Carmen, and she's the one who tells us the story of how the Pants were born. She says, "Mainly I got the pants because Lena's mom hates secondhand clothing stores" (Prologue.6). And because she provides framework for the story by narrating both its open and its close, in addition to giving us the background info we need about the pants, Carmen emerges as the leader of the Sisterhood, not only for the other girls, but for us as readers.
This isn't the Carmen show, though, and the chapters are written from a third person perspective. This narrator knows about all four protagonists, and tells their stories objectively, enjoying equal access to each of them in turn. So in Greece, for example, the narrator is focused on Lena's thoughts. Check this passage out:
Lena tried to freeze the pleasant look on her face. Was her grandmother seriously trying to set her up with a guy less than six hours after she'd arrived? (3.17)
The narrator doesn't just see what's going on—there's a "pleasant look" on Lena's face—but also knows what's going on inside Lena's head. And depending on whose experiences are being shared at a given moment, the narrator gives us the same level of detail about each girl. They stick to the girls, though, when it comes to inner thoughts, and this keeps the narrator's omniscience to a limited scope.
So far, so good, right? Now it gets a little more complicated, though, because dispersed throughout the chapters are the girls' letters, all of which are written in the first person point of view. These personal notes add emotion and insight, helping us really connect with each girl's individual journey. For instance, Lena writes to Tibby:
I feel like an idiot. I was vain enough to think Kostos was so in love with me he couldn't resist following me and spying on me at the pond. (17.34)
This structure gives readers the best of both worlds, giving us glimpses into characters' minds, while still seeing all of their problems objectively—something they are really bad at doing. If the story was only told in first person, we'd have a hard time really understanding the strength and weaknesses of our main characters, but because it slips into first person from time to time, we stay invested in what's happening to each of the girls. Cool trick, right? We think so.