DOUBLE TAKE

THE STORY OF TWINS

Jussim (AIDS & HIV, not reviewed) explores the lives and psychology of twins at a time when recent medical interventions are causing more multiple births. Stories of identical, fraternal, same sex, different sex, very young twins, and old twins are told in journalistic style with quotations, photographs, and descriptions of the subjects. Scientific information and the social and psychological factors pertinent to multiple births are clearly explained and woven into these stories. One chapter tells of twins who were separated at birth, find each other, and learn, to their amazement, how similar they are. Conjoined twins are treated historically; information about successful surgeries to separate the babies is contrasted with the dangers of the procedures that may lead to the death of one or both of them. Two sets of pairs who remain conjoined are presented as happy, functioning adults and children. Twins marrying twins and stories about multiples, including the Dionne quintuplets round out the information. Black-and-white photographs accompany the text and captions in red lend some graphic interest. This informal and workmanlike title lacks a glossary, index, or credits. The recently published Twin Tales by Donna Jackson (p. 259) covers the same ground, including many of the same subjects, and is more attractively packaged. (Nonfiction. 9-13)

Pub Date: April 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-670-88452-9

Page Count: 96

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2001

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A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish.

THE MECHANICAL MIND OF JOHN COGGIN

The dreary prospect of spending a lifetime making caskets instead of wonderful inventions prompts a young orphan to snatch up his little sister and flee. Where? To the circus, of course.

Fortunately or otherwise, John and 6-year-old Page join up with Boz—sometime human cannonball for the seedy Wandering Wayfarers and a “vertically challenged” trickster with a fantastic gift for sowing chaos. Alas, the budding engineer barely has time to settle in to begin work on an experimental circus wagon powered by chicken poop and dubbed (with questionable forethought) the Autopsy. The hot pursuit of malign and indomitable Great-Aunt Beauregard, the Coggins’ only living relative, forces all three to leave the troupe for further flights and misadventures. Teele spins her adventure around a sturdy protagonist whose love for his little sister is matched only by his fierce desire for something better in life for them both and tucks in an outstanding supporting cast featuring several notably strong-minded, independent women (Page, whose glare “would kill spiders dead,” not least among them). Better yet, in Boz she has created a scene-stealing force of nature, a free spirit who’s never happier than when he’s stirring up mischief. A climactic clutch culminating in a magnificently destructive display of fireworks leaves the Coggin sibs well-positioned for bright futures. (Illustrations not seen.)

A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish. (Adventure. 11-13)

Pub Date: April 12, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-06-234510-3

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016

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A beautiful, evocative sophomore effort from Newbery honoree Wolk (Wolf Hollow, 2016).

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BEYOND THE BRIGHT SEA

This book will make people want to run away to the Elizabeth Islands.

It’s the 1920s. Crow and her adoptive father, Osh, live in a tiny house on a tiny island off Cape Cod, but her descriptions make it seem strange and mysterious. The cottage is “built from bits of lost ships,” and it’s full of found treasures: “a pair of sun-white whale ribs arched over our doorway, a tarnished ship’s bell hanging from their pinnacle.” Every chapter in the book has a new mystery to be solved: why was Crow sent away in an old boat when she was a baby? Why is a fire burning on an abandoned island? Did Capt. Kidd really hide treasure nearby? But some readers will love Wolk’s use of language even more than the puzzles. Crow says her skin is “the same color Osh [makes] by mixing purple and yellow, blue and orange, red and green.” (The race of the characters isn’t always identified, but Osh says, “I came a long, long way to be here,” and his native language and accent make him sound “different from everyone else.”) The pacing of the book isn’t always as suspenseful as it should be. There are a few lulls, which the author tries to fill with heavy foreshadowing. But the mysteries—and the words that describe them—are compelling enough to send readers to the islands for years to come.

A beautiful, evocative sophomore effort from Newbery honoree Wolk (Wolf Hollow, 2016). (Historical fiction. 9-13)

Pub Date: May 2, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-101-99485-6

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: March 29, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017

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