Carmen Lowell

Carmen is one of the four Girls in Pants. She tends to be reckless and makes mistakes. However, her recklessness tends to turn out all right, and she often is the better for having made those mistakes. Carmen lives with her mother and stepfather, who just got married a year before. She decides to take care of her friend's grandmother, Valia, for the summer. The two disagree a great deal of the time, but their relationship becomes a catalyst for providing them both with something they desperately want and need.

Carmen has always been very close to her mother. When her mother marries David, Carmen becomes uncomfortable with the change in the relationship between her and her mother and feels less secure. She realizes that this distance will be intensified if she goes away from home to college, and she decides to go to a local school...