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
In a second set of entries—of a planned three, all first published in somewhat different form online in installments—slacker diarist Greg starts a new school year. After a miserable summer of avoiding swim-team practice by hiding out in the bathroom (and having to wrap himself in toilet paper to keep from freezing), he finally passes on the dreaded “cheese touch” (a form of cooties) to an unsuspecting new classmate, then stumbles through another semester of pranks and mishaps. On the domestic front, his ongoing wars with older brother Rodrick, would-be drummer in a would-be metal band called Löded Diper, share center stage with their mother’s generally futile parenting strategies. As before, the text, which is done in a legible hand-lettered–style font, is liberally interspersed with funny line drawings, many of which feature punch lines in speech balloons. Though even less likable that Junie B. Jones, Greg is (well, generally) at least not actively malicious, and so often is he the victim of circumstance or his own schemes gone awry that readers can’t help but feel empathy. This reasonably self-contained installment closes with a truce between the siblings. A temporary one, more than likely. (Illustrated fiction. 9-11)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8109-9473-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2007
BOOK TO SCREEN
The journey is even gently funny—Omakayas’s brother spends much of the year with a porcupine on his head. Charming and...
This third entry in the Birchbark House series takes Omakayas and her family west from their home on the Island of the Golden-Breasted Woodpecker, away from land the U.S. government has claimed.
Difficulties abound; the unknown landscape is fraught with danger, and they are nearing hostile Bwaanag territory. Omakayas’s family is not only close, but growing: The travelers adopt two young chimookoman (white) orphans along the way. When treachery leaves them starving and alone in a northern Minnesota winter, it will take all of their abilities and love to survive. The heartwarming account of Omakayas’s year of travel explores her changing family relationships and culminates in her first moon, the onset of puberty. It would be understandable if this darkest-yet entry in Erdrich’s response to the Little House books were touched by bitterness, yet this gladdening story details Omakayas’s coming-of-age with appealing optimism.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-06-029787-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2008
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