Saving Sunshine by Saadia Faruqi and Shazleen Khan

Twins Zara and Zeeshan Aziz live in New York with their parents, Dr. Bilal Aziz and Dr. Rasheeda Aziz. The entire family are traveling to a pediatrics conference in Florida.  There, Rasheeda will receive the pediatrician of the year award, the first Muslim woman to be given this recognition.

Zara and Zeesh do not get along and their constant bickering is overwhelming their parents. When they arrive at their hotel in Key West, Zeesh steps on Zara's suitcase, causing her to fall. Fed up with the two of them, their father takes away their phones. He tells them they "need to figure out how to be friends." Both are upset: Zara because as an animal activist she won't be able to post pictures on social media, and Zeesh because he won't be able to watch the NASA space videos he loves.

At the Tortuga Hills Resort in Florida, the two siblings unsuccessfully attempt to find where their parents have hidden their phones, even trying to crack the code for the safe in their room. It seems they will have to put up with one another. 

A kayaking trip sees Zara find a sick leatherback turtle on the beach. His eyes appear to be infected and the turtle seems lethargic, making Zara believe he is sick. She decides to name him Sunshine. When they return to the resort, Zara asks the concierge if there is an animal hospital nearby, telling him she has found a sick turtle on the beach. He offers to call a local vet to come to the beach.

While Rasheeda and Bilal attend the conference and award ceremony, Zara and Zeesh struggle to get along. Making the situation even more challenging, is the misunderstanding and racism they experience from people at the hotel. Can they learn to understand one another and work together while also supporting each other when others around them do not?

Discussion

Saving Sunshine is a story about sibling rivalry set within the experience of being Muslim in America. Twins, Although Zara and Zeesh are American-born, they experience bias, misunderstanding and racism. Their parents, Bilal and Rasheeda who were born in Pakistan, are searched at the airport, something Zeesh notes happens almost all the time and makes him angry. At the reservation station, the ticket agent struggles to pronounce their names while at the hotel, the concierge asks where they are from based on how they look, He also assumes the Middle East is a desert, demonstrating his ignorance. When this angers Zeesh, his father tells him he has learned to discern people's intentions rather than assuming the worst.

Zara also experiences ignorance and misunderstanding over her headscarf. When the concierge compliments her on her headscarft, this triggers a memory of a year ago when she when she wore the hijab to school for the first time in sixth grade. Zeesh wasn't supportive, not defending her when his non-Muslim friends make fun of her. Like Bilal, Rasheeda encourages Zara not to get angry at every person who taunts her, explaining that the hijab is about sacrifice. But once again when Zeesh makes some new friends at the resort and they comment on her hijab, he does nothing. 

While dealing with prejudice and ignorance, Zara and Zeesh gradually come to understand each other and work to save Sunshine with the help of a local vet. Dr. Anthony Sergio guess that they are from India angers Zeesh . But Dr. Sergio tells him that everyone is from somewhere and that people are just curious and generally mean no harm. 

As they spend more time together, the two teens begin to understand one another and become more supportive. On a walk at the beach in the evening, Zara begins to see the beauty of the stars and is eager to visit the Wendell Family Observatory (strangely on top of what looks like a lighthouse). Zara understands that Zeesh is missing his NASA videos so she hopes this will fill that void and Zeesh is thrilled. Later, as they are eating burgers, Zeesh's new friends arrive. When they insult Zara for wearing her hijab, this time he defends her, much to Zara's shock. When Zeesh gets himself into trouble, after running away in anger from their parents, Zara comes to his rescue. Zeesh returns the favour by working with Zara to help her rescue Sunshine during a violent storm. 

Saving Sunshine offers plenty of positive messages such as not making assumptions about people, and about working together to help each other . Zara and Zeesh's parents both tell them that they try to understand what people's intentions are instead of assuming the worst and responding angrily. It turns out that this is what both Zara and Zeesh must, in order to better understand each other.  When their parents remove the distraction of their cell phones, they are forced to focus on their relationship as brother and sister,  This leads each to understand what is important to the other, and to act with kindness. The colourful graphic art, done with Procreate and inked and coloured on Paint  Tool SAI, reinforce this message.

Saving Sunshine also offers non-Muslims the chance to explore how insensitive words, meant with the best of intentions, can be hurtful and divisive. 

Book Details:

Saving Sunshine by Saadia Faruqi
New York: First Second      2023

221 pp.

Black Fox of Lorne by Marguerite De Angeli

Black Fox of Lorne tells the story of twin boys, Jan and Brus who travel from their home in Norway to start a new life in England and their adventures after they are shipwrecked.

Jan and Brus are thirteen-year-old twins who live with their father Harald Redbeard and their mother Ragnhild who is a Dane.  Their farm is located above a fiord in Norway on the southern coast. The twins have been trained by their father in many skills including the art of poetry, carving letters on rune sticks, learning the laws of their people so they can participate in decisions, how to handle weapons and care for animals. They also know how to sail, repair boats and shoot with a long bow. 

Their father, Harald Redbeard decides he must travel to a new land to make his living. He is the foster son, having been adopted at the age of ten, after his parents were lost at sea. As a foster son, he cannot inherit land unless agreed to by the sons of his foster father. However his elder foster brothers have inherited all their father's land, leaving none for Harald.  He has already sent his two older sons, Hardi and Bran with Gudmond the Bold to search out a new place but having never returned, they are believed lost.

Now Harald decides he will journey to England because his wife's countryman, Heming the Dane has settled there and will welcome them. At dinner that night, Harald tells them they will sail to England in three ships.Harald's own ship, Raven of the Wind will carry Harald, Jan, Brus and their warriors. The Hawk will carry Ragnhild, their nurse Catriona and the women and children. The third ship, Sea Wolf will carry the horses, cows, geese, hounds as well as hay and fodder for the animals.

In exchange for giving his foster brother Agnar his cattle, land and houses, Harald was given money for the boats and an ancient brooch, booty from the Franks two hundred years earlier. This brooch is believed to protect from evil and head wounds. Harald also warns the twins that their trick of switching places, pretending to be the other can be used to their advantage. Although the two boys are identical, they are very different; Brus loves hunting, hawking and caring for animals while Jan is the poet.

When summer begins, the three ships set sail. Their second day at sea is stormy and Harald decides to sail for the Orkneys. While they are able to find safe harbour, they have lost sight of the two other ships. The next day they sail out in the hopes of finding the lost ships however another storm blows. For three days the Raven struggles to stay afloat but the storm subsides on the fourth day. Although the Raven has some damage, they are safe and Harald believes they are near the Western Isles. Once more the sea becomes rough but this time the Raven is tossed onto the rocks and sunk. Harald Redbeard, his sons Jan and Brus and fourteen men are all who survive, swept onto the shore.

When Jan goes to get water, he is set upon and captured by a group of thirty clansmen and ordered to take them to his father's camp.Harald and the warriors hear the Scots coming, and he orders Brus to hide. A tall Scotsman, introduces himself to Harald as Began Mor, Thane of Skye, the Winged Isle. He asks Harald why he has come to Began's land and invites him to celebrate the betrothal of his daughter Nineag to Gavin Dhu, the Laird of Lorne.

In Began Mor's keep, Harald is set beside Began, while each one of Harald's men is set between two of Began's men. Brus has followed them and now watches over the hill into the courtyard. The soothsayer tells of the history of the land and how Gavin Dhu known as Gavin the Black will wed Nineag the White at the Christ Mass. The monk tells the gathering the story of Christ, his birth, death and resurrection. Afterwards they all make the sign of the cross. The story causes Brus to wonder since his father Harald had not been one to accept the Christian religion.

However the feast quickly turns into a battle after one of Harald's warriors attacks Began Mor's men. The entire party of Norse warriors is slain and thrown over the walls onto the rocks. Jan is spared and taken prisoner. However, Brus who witnesses everything discovers that his father is still alive and carries him to a cave to care for him. While out to get water, Brus returns to the cave and discovers his father has been murdered and the brooch stolen. He is determined to avenge his father's murder and recover the family's talisman.

When a column of horses led by Gavin of Lorne and his men leave the castle, Brus follows knowing that Jan is a prisoner. The two boys eventually find a way to meet and Brus tells Jan the fate of their father. Over the next few days, because they are identical twins, Brus and Jan find ways to switch places. As the boys travel through Scotland, they meet many Christians who teach them about their faith and urge them to not be so quick to avenge their father's murder. As they build allies among the simple workers who have seen their lives destroyed by Gavin, Black Fox of Lorne and the cruel Began Mor, the twins also uncover a treacherous plot that threatens the very king of Scotland!

Discussion

De Angeli has crafted a story that offers young readers a fascinating picture of tenth century Scotland. This is a story with the themes of vengeance and betrayal countered by forgiveness and faith.

As the twins travel through Scotland to Gavin's keep, they meet several Scots who teach them about Christianity. The twins know about Christianity because in their country, the father Harald refused to convert as ordered by the Norse king. However, once in Scotland they begin to learn about the Christian faith through the various people they meet on their journey. It is a journey that will test their intelligence and resourcefulness, but also their very beliefs.

Jan first encounters the story of Christ from Donald a shepherd who feeds him. Jan tells Donald what has befallen his family and that he intends to avenge his father's murder. But Donald tells him, "Vengeance is the Lord's. Beware lest ye find that for which ye seek! It can be an evil thing! The Lord says, 'Forgive them as I forgive you.' "  He then tells Jan the story of Christ's birth, death and resurrection as well the miracles of St. Andrew in converting the Scots. Jan who is perhaps the gentler of the twins is open to the message. "Jan listened with all his heart. This was a wondrous tale indeed. The shepherd's tale had eased the burden of grief in him. He must tell Brus."

Brus first encounters the Christ story from Morag, a crofter's wife who gives him shelter. When he tells her of his plan to avenge his father's murder, she says, "The Lord will take care of our enemies...if we trust Him and bide His time." But Brus is not open to this advice, stating, "No son leaves his father's death unavenged. And who is this God? We have many gods." Even though Morag explains Christmas to Brus, he is not ready for it insisting, "It is for his sons to avenge him."

Jan who is renamed Ian by the Scots struggles with his anger whenever he sees Gavin wearing his father's brooch. However, Murdoch Gow, a smithy who is also a prisoner and whose wife and children were murdered by Gavin teaches Ian that "God's ways are not our ways. We must have faith, for even when all seems against us, we later find that all was for the best." Ian questions Murdoch as to why Gavin makes the sign of the cross when he is cruel and a traitor. Ian knows his father Harald would never give a sign of peace and then kill innocent people as Black Gavin has done. Murdoch explains that some "...make the sign of the cross, those who speak the name of the Christ, the Holy One, in lip service only..." Ian gradually comes to a better understanding of the Catholic faith through the people he meets in Black Gavin's castle.

A young boy his own age, Alan MacDugal, is the son of Dugal who was also murdered by Black Gavin. His mother has been imprisoned elsewhere and their lands have been stolen by Gavin who has set himself up as Thane of Lorne. This means Ian and Alan have a common enemy in Gavin. Seeing Alan praying in the castle for his imprisoned mother's safety further intrigues Ian, "Could he, Ian, make a prayer to Alan's God, for the safety of his own mother?" He wonders, "Who is this God? What is the spell made by crossing the breast and touch the forehead, whispering words?"

Brus again encounters Christianity in the cottage of the shepherd, Gregory, his wife Una and their little son Tomas. He learns more about the saints and disciples who came after Christ. It is Gregory who suggests to Brus that maybe he was sent to Scotland for a reason not yet known. Brus's aversion to the new faith is seen when he finally meets up with Ian in the castle and hears his twin brother calling on God's help. Brus questions him, "With God's help? What mean you with this talk?" said Brus angrily. "What of the gods of our fathers? Are you gone soft, or simple?"

Both boys have the chance to exact revenge on Black Gavin for their father's murder. Ian has the chance to kill Gavin when they stop to drink from a stream but he hesitates because he has been taught that to kill an enemy from the back is the way of a coward. Brus too has the chance when he is accompanying Gavin on horseback. Gavin is pitched from his horse and hits his head on a stone, falling headfirst into a stream. With Gavin's head underwater, Brus has the chance to do nothing and simply leave him to drown but he does not. Instead, like his twin brother, Brus remembers his father's teaching to "...be just to all men.' But was it 'just' to save the life of an enemy? ' Yes,' Murdoch Gow said. 'Love thine enemy, hate him not, but hate the thing he does.' Was he, then becoming soft like Ian? He must watch lest he forget his purpose."

But when Brus travels to the priory with Gavin he is impressed by the crucifix in the chapel. "The broken figure hanging from the rood above the altar held Brus's gaze. This, then, was that Christ of whom he heard so much, who had given His life for His friends. He had been a noble warrior."

De Angeli populates her story with both good and bad characters in Christian Scotland, making the story realistic. It is the simple folk who live out their Christian faith, who have the most impact on Brus and Ian. Their imparting of some of the basic beliefs of Christianity to the twins, add to the code of honour they have learned from their father Harald. While their desire for revenge remains strong, they remain true to their warrior code of honour, resisting revenge in a way that is dishonourable. Eventually, justice is meted out to those guilty, in circumstances that protect the boys. Impressed by the sacrificial Christian God, Christ resonates with the two boys, and it is their mother's acceptance of Christianity that finally pushes them to accept the Christian faith.

Black Fox of Lorne is an exciting tale of betrayal, murder and political intrigue, but also one of justice, faith and forgiveness. Readers will be interested in the details the author incorporates into her story about life in tenth century Scotland. De Angeli's exquisite pencil sketches portray some of the events in the story.

Book Details:

Black Fox of Lorne by Marguerite De Angeli
Garden City, New York: Doubleday    1956
91 pp.

Untwine: a novel by Edwidge Danticat

Untwine is a young adult novel about a girl who loses her twin sister in an devastating car accident and her struggle to regain her health and her life.

Sixteen-year-old identical twins, Giselle and Isabelle Boyer live in Miami, Florida with their father, David who is a lawyer and their mother, Sylvie who does the make-up for television. Their parents are planning to separate.The Boyer family is on their way to a school concert in which Isabelle will be playing flute. As strains of Igor Stravinsky's Firebird play on the CD player in their father's SUV, suddenly they are suddenly rammed from behind by a red minivan. Her father attempts to avoid the van but a retaining wall on the passenger side of the car prevents him from doing so. Isabelle, who had just taken off her seatbelt, has her head smashed against the window. As her mother screams, Gizelle and Isabelle hold hands, "...the tightest we have ever held hands in our entire lives."

Gizelle is semi-awake in the ambulance and when she is pulled out of the ambulance at the hospital. She overhears a list of serious injuries and then realizes that they are not talking about her but also about Isabelle. Eventually Gizelle briefly wakens in a small white room with a large glass window and determines that she is in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. The first person to arrive is her Aunt Leslie, who is her mother's sister and also Gizelle and Isabelle's godmother. She lives in Orlando where she is a pediatrician.

Standing behind Aunt Leslie is a policewoman who wants to question Gizelle. However, Aunt Leslie tells the policewoman that Gizelle has a very bad concussion and is drifting in and out of consciousness. Aunt Leslie is crying and the policewoman tells her that they believe what happened might not be an accident. Gizelle hears this and wonders what this means.

Although Gizelle cannot respond to those around her, she can clearly remember things that have happened in the past. She thinks about her and Isabella, how her twin is 90 seconds older and still weighs slightly more than her. She also thinks about her best friend Tina Marshall and her classmate, Jean Michel Brun who is her dream crush. Whenever Gizelle regains consciousness she is in a lot of pain. She finds herself in another room, moved from the PICU because she has no serious injuries.

Gizelle continues to awaken periodically and one time is stunned to hear the male nurse call her Isabelle. Gizelle is unable to move her arms or speak. "My whole body can't move. I can't speak, but I can see Aunt Leslie and the glass bricks on the walls."  Even Aunt Leslie believes she is Isabelle. Terribly upset, Aunt Leslie tries to fill Gizelle in on what has happened. Although Gizelle is having difficulty comprehending what her aunt is telling her, she is able to piece together that her parents are in the adult wing of the same hospital and that Isabelle has died from her terrible injuries.

Gizelle's Uncle Patrick arrives at the hospital and shows her photos of her parents on his cell phone so that she can see how they are doing. He also takes pictures of her and shows them to Gizelle. She cannot respond to him but she can see the photos although the cell phone screen bothers her. Gizelle is also visited by a doctor who is leading a group of residents on rounds. She refers to him as the "head duck" and his "ducklings". They continue to believe that she is Isabelle.

Eventually, Gizelle's parents do visit her. She is propped up in the bed, but still cannot really respond, although she can see and hear everything that is going on. Her father has more serious injuries than her mother and is in a wheelchair. It is her mother though who realizes that Gizelle has been mistakenly identified as Isabelle. Shouting to Gizelle's father, Aunt Leslie and Uncle Patrick she insists based on the scar on Gizelle's head and a mole behind her ear.

Another visit by the head neurologist with his students sees him discussing the fact that Gizelle is a twin and that she is young and should be able to shake off this head injury. He encourages her to wake up. Gizelle knows that she needs to wake up but she struggles because waking up means living life without her best friend and twin, Isabelle. It means leaving Isabelle behind.

Discussion

Untwine is a beautifully crafted novel by award-winning writer, Edwidge Danticat. It explores the themes of identity and grief as a young girl copes with a devastating loss.

The story is told by sixteen-year-old Gizelle Boyer who loses her best friend and twin sister Isabelle in a terrible car accident. Gizelle is suffering from a serious concussion and has difficulty waking up. Partly she doesn't want to awaken. "I want to wake up, but I can't. Because waking up might mean leaving Isabelle behind forever." While she's not fully conscious, Gizelle is able to remember life with Isabelle, something she will no longer have. She will also have to face the reality of her parents separating.Gizelle has  vivid and rich imaginings of her sister Isabelle culminating in her imagining speaking with her sister and saying goodbye. "Isabelle is now standing at my bedside with both her hands, her perfect, unhurt hands, resting on the railing of my hospital bed. She's wearing her orchestra uniform, the white blouse, black pencil skirt, and black bow tie, the same one she was wearing in the car...You've really astonished me here," she says, looking down at me in the bed. 'You've been great. Super great. For the rest of your life you keep stunning me. Just keep stunning me.' " Gizelle tells Isabelle she won't live and that she loves her.

However, the head neurologist, Dr. Aidoo believes that Gizelle can recover and he encourages her to fight to wake up. When Gizelle loses her hearing she makes the decision to try to awaken, starting with trying to move her toes. "I'm tired of my silence. I'm tired of having all these thoughts racing through my head. Even if I can't hear them, I to be able to say something." As she struggles to give her family a sign that she is trying to wake up she thinks, "It's a lot harder to  move forward than to fall back. I have to remind myself that no matter how hard it seems, I just can't keep falling back."

Eventually Gizelle wakes up and begins her recovery from her severe concussion.Gizelle's biggest struggle is dealing with being a survivor. At her sister's funeral, Gizelle is unnerved seeing her sister - her identical twin in a coffin. "But even with all of the makeup, she still looks like me. It's like looking at me."  Gizelle knows what she looks like dead because she has her sister to show her. "I know exactly what I look like dead. I look like Isabelle."  Isabelle's friend states what everyone is thinking - "You look just like her." Although others are upset, Gizelle recognizes the truth of the comment. "A few people gasp, but she is telling the truth. An uncomfortable truth, but the truth nonetheless. No one will ever forget Isabelle as long as I'm walking around with her body and her face. My sister is dead and I am her ghost."

Gizelle must now face life without Isabelle. She always thought of her future connected to that of Isabelle's, that they would share their lives important moments. Gizelle feels that her identity as a twin has changed with Isabelle's death. "But what are you called when your twin dies? I want some name other than twinless twin. I want something simple, lyrical sophisticated sounding. Even though I know it would never fully comfort me. I want something beautiful to now call myself." 

Gizelle's friends, Jean Michel and Tina are trying to learn more about the mysterious Gloria Carlton who caused the accident. When they visit Gizelle to tell her about what they have learned, Gizelle notices that Jean Michel has Frida Kahlo's The Two Fridas as a screensaver. Gizelle is stunned because the painting represents exactly how she feels. "How does he know, I wonder, that this is exactly how I've been feeling? Split in half sometimes, and at other times walking, living, breathing for two. Two hearts are beating in my one chest, but it feels like no heart at all." 

The portrait painted in 1939 by the Mexican artist, is a self portrait, showing two Fridas. One is dressed in the traditional Tehuana costume (blue dress and green skirt) with a whole, beating heart and holding a locket. The other Frida is dressed in a white, lacy Victorian dress and has a bleeding, broken heart, the vein running down into her lap, dripping blood. The two Fridas are holding hands, their hearts connected. The painting is a metaphor of Gizelle in several ways. First it represents Gizelle, the whole Gizelle before the accident and the Gizelle who lost her sister. When Tina presents her with "a framed picture, half the size of a postcard. In the red plastic frame is a shrunken copy of Frida Kahlo's The Two Fridas." at first Gizelle wonders which one she is but then she understands what her friend Tina and Jean Michel are attempting to tell her. "It takes me a while to figure it out, but eventually I do. I think he's trying to tell me what everyone's been telling me in one way or another since Isabelle died, that I won't be the bloodless Frida forever, the one day, my heart will be full of life again." 

The Two Fridas might also represent both twins; Isabelle (in the white dress) broken and bleeding and Gizelle in the Tehuana costume, whole and healthy. Isabelle and Gizelle were holding hands when the accident happened. "We were holding hands the tightest we have ever held hands in our entire lives. We were holding hands just as we had been holding hands on the day we were born...We were born holding hands." When the car crashes into Isabelle's car door, Gizelle remembers "My sister was still holding my hand, but now our hands were wet and sticky, and hot."  

The cover of the novel expresses the theme of twins and the death of one twin through the use of two hearts with veins spreading out from them. In keeping with the theme, one heart has as set of veins which become branches filled with blossoms representing the living Gizelle, the other heart has a set of veins which become dead branches representing Isabelle.

Danticat does an excellent job of developing her main character, Gizelle: the reader feels tremendous empathy for Gizelle as she struggles to accept the loss of her twin sister. If there's a weakness in this novel, it is the lack of development of secondary characters, although Gizelle's Aunt Leslie is particularly well done. It is Aunt Leslie who helps move Gizelle forward in the process of grieving.

Untwine is further unique in the bits of Haitian culture woven through the story, making this novel even more engaging read. Despite Gizelle's parents troubled marriage, we never feel like she is left alone to cope as her extended Haitian family is very supportive and she finds comfort in some of her family's customs. Untwine is truly wonderful novel.

Book Details:

Untwine: a novel by Edwidge Danticat
New York: Scholastic Press   2015
303 pp.

Gemini by Sonya Mukherjee

Gemini is a very unique novel that tackles a very different reality, that of conjoined twins. Hailey and Clara are two seventeen year olds who share the lower end of their spinal column as well as their intestinal tract. They are "two complete, full-size people, with two normal, fully functioning brains" who share sensation in the lower half of their bodies. While they may share the lower part of their bodies, Hailey and Clara are very different persons. Hailey is outgoing, with pink hair, a butterfly tattoo on her shoulder, edgy black eye makeup and is determined to become an artist. Clara is shy, dressing blandly to avoid being noticed and fascinated by astronomy. Hailey is opinionated but Clara who by her own accounts has "sharp" opinions keeps them to herself.

Hailey and Clara live with their parents in Bear Pass, a small (fictitious) town in California. Their family moved to the town to avoid the stares and curiosity of strangers.  Their parents teach at Sutter College, a private four-year college where their father is a tenured professor in literary theory and British poetry, and their mother is a lecturer. The small town means that most people know them and leave them alone.

When they hear that a new guy is coming to Bear Pass the twins are anxious but in different ways; Clara worries how they will be perceived and Hailey just wants someone interesting. The new guy, Max first appears in their AP English class. He's tall with blond hair, and has moved to Bear Pass from Los Angeles. While Hailey is not interested, Clara most definitely is. The twins learn from Bridget that Max appears to have an interest in astronomy so they along with best friend Juanita scheme to arrange a trip to the Sutter College observatory with Max. Their school is having a Sadie Hawkins dance and Juanita believes an outing to the observatory will give Clara a chance to ask Max to the dance. Meanwhile in art class, which Clara hates, Hailey talks to fellow art student Alek Drivakis whom she finds attractive. Like Hailey, Alek has a bit of an edge; he likes to wear black and his artwork frequently features corpses or fires.

At the Sandwich Shack, Juanita reveals that one of the teachers is pressuring her to apply to Stanford and other high level colleges. However because of costs and her mother's fears and reservations, Juanita plans to attend college locally despite being an excellent student. For Hailey this seems wrong because while she and Clara are stuck attending Sutter College which has about 500 students, she knows that Juanita will be able to obtain a full scholarship at Stanford. Even Hailey is not happy attending Sutter because it means her ambition to attend a good art school will not be realized. While the three are discussing their future plans along with another friend Bridget, Max arrives. Max tells the group that he has moved to Bear Pass from Santa Monica in his senior year because of circumstances involving his father. When Hailey asks Max to join them at the Sutter observatory so Clara can show him the stars, Max clams up and ends up leaving the café in anger.

At home the twins find their mother upset over American conjoined twins undergoing separation surgery in San Francisco. Clara and Hailey's mother believes the parents and the doctors are taking unnecessary risks in order for the twins to live independently. As with her own twins she believes the surgery is wrong. While Clara and Hailey's mother is opposed to them undergoing separation surgery, leaving Bear Pass or even doing day trips, their father is more open and encouraging, offering to take them to San Francisco.  Clara becomes angry at her mother over this, indicating that separating twins is not always wrong. Her confrontation with their mother surprises Hailey who decides that she is asking Alek to the Sadie Hawkins dance and she tells Carla that she should ask Max.

At lunch hour the next day they meet Alek who tells Hailey that he is applying for a summer program at  Golden Gate Arts in San Francisco. It's a three week intensive working with real artists. Alek encourages Hailey to apply and to plan to stay in the dorms. With Alek seeming very comfortable around her, Hailey asks Alek to the dance and he accepts. When Clara meets Max a few minutes later, she decides to make it difficult for him and tells him that Friday is his last chance to come with her to the observatory. Max reluctantly agrees to meet Clara but it turns out that he had planned to watch the Orionid meteor shower at his home. So Max turns the invitation around and invites Clara to his house as well as their friends.

Hailey manages to convince Clara to let her apply for the summer art intensive that Alek mentioned and at least go for the interview. Their meteor-watching get-together which includes Max's friends Josh and Gavin as well as Clara and Hailey's friend, Juanita initially goes well until Lindsey, Vanessa and Jasmine arrive. As Lindsey makes a move on Max and attempts to get rid of Hailey and Clara, Max becomes angry and his mom sends everyone home.

The next event Hailey and Clara attend is Amber's Halloween party which sees Hailey dress up as Galinda while Clara is the Wicked Witch. Max is at the party as the Tin Man and he and Clara make arrangements to go to the observatory at Sutter. Max explains to Clara what happened at his house telling her he was once a special-ed kid and that he has a major stuttering problem. Alek crashes Amber's party to question Hailey about applying to the summer art program. He offers to take her for an interview or to take her portfolio. Like the other social situations, Amber's Halloween party ends badly for the twins. Alek shows Hailey something on his phone that deeply upsets her and Clara overhears a conversation between Max and his friends about the twins that disgusts her.

These events begin to affect how Hailey and Clara view themselves and result in them reconsidering the future they have planned. They embark on a journey of self-discovery that leads them to several momentous decisions.

Discussion

Gemini is a novel about two teens with an unusual disability who struggle to take control of their future and to define themselves outside of their disability. Clara and Hailey are pygopagus twins joined at the base of the spine and sharing their gastrointestinal organs. Their parents, specifically their mother refused to allow them to be separated when they were young, although it appears their father did not completely agree with her decision and still has some doubts. Otherwise Clara and Hailey are physically healthy and thriving. Their family moved to a small town so that they could be protected from people who might want to take advantage of their unusual situation. But this isolation is beginning to bother the more extroverted twin, Hailey who is a gifted artist and who wants to study art at a good university, to travel and experience life more fully. Her quieter sister, Clara, finds Bear Paw just fine and is reluctant to travel anywhere where they might have to deal with many new people or situations. However Clara also finds her situation restrictive as she argues with their mother about how she has made assumptions about what life after separation might be like.

As the twins approach adulthood they must face the reality that friends and school mates will move on from the small town of Bear Pass. They come up against the reality of their situation, something they feel their parents have pretended doesn't exist. Both Clara and Hailey chafe at their parents efforts to portray them as "normal" because they know this is not really true. Carla tells Hailey, "I'm sure it's perfectly normal to have to share the job of putting out silverware because we can't be in two separate parts of the same room...I'm sure it's perfectly normal to always balance off the side of the toilet while your sister is peeing...I'm sure its perfectly normal...to have to spend your entire life in the world's smallest rural community so that no one will stare and point and laugh at you when you go out in public and see actual strangers." 

Hailey also dislikes how they pretend that they are normal but she recognizes why their parents do this because it is the simplest way to cope. "Normal, normal, normal. It's this idiotic mantra around our house. We claim we're normal. We build our lives around that lie. It's why we can't go anywhere, or do much of anything. If we did, we'd come up against the truth." But Hailey, even as a child knew they were not normal. "We were not like anyone else. Who besides us had two minds that understood each other perfectly? That worked in such perfect synchrony that they could operate their four legs and four arms in unison without discussion, giving them twice the strength of a regular child? Not to mention twice the imagination and bargaining power...We weren't normal. We were magical."

Beginning to face the reality that they are two people with different interests and goals in life but joined together leads them to experience some serious conflicts which is new as they usually "just work things out, often with very little discussion." Hailey accuses Clara of not caring about how she might feel about staying in Bear Pass and attending Sutter College which doesn't have the program she needs to further her art studies. "...your head is so crammed with your own problems, if you tried to make room for mine, your brain would burst open at the seams." This leads Clara to reconsider their choices and their future plans. She asks their parents to allow them to travel to San Francisco so that Hailey can interview for the art intensive. Clara does this because she believes that although she's satisfied with their lives and the plan for them, maybe Hailey is not. "All this time I'd been holding onto the idea that the life we'd planned -- or rather, the life our parents had planned for us, and that we'd accepted -- was the best that either of us could hope for. But maybe that wasn't true for Hailey. Maybe it was true only for me."

Hailey believes that it is wrong for their mother to limit their choices in life but she also knows she must work together with Clara to figure out their future. Hailey believes that art school and leaving Bear Pass likely won't happen but she knows there must be a change in their lives. So she decides to do what Clara has suggested and apply to film school at Sutter while hoping that she and Clara can live in a house or in a dorm at the college rather than at home. 

In addition to struggling with making their own decisions about their lives, both girls must now confront how their conjoinedness will affect their ability to date and to marry. Both girls meet boys they are attracted to but struggle with how those boys view them. Clara struggles with her attraction to Max and the fact that he doesn't feel the same.  She wonders how Max really views her and whether it matters. Clara also feels disgusted at herself. "It was me. I was disgusting. A mutant. Had I really forgotten that?" She remembers how her mother has explained they were to think about themselves. "The way we view ourselves has to come from the inside, not from the reflection that we see in other people's eyes." But Clara questions this advice. "But sometimes it seems to me that reflections are all we have. Without them, we could never see ourselves at all. "

At the same time Hailey is also very attracted to Alek. The situation reaches a turning point when the twins begin to assert some control over their lives by insisting that they be allowed to attend the Sadie Hawkins dance. Their mother at first refuses but then relents. Hailey wonders what their mother really believes about them. "Our mom was always carrying on about how normal we were and what normal lives we could lead, but I think we both began to understand that she didn't actually believe this. Or maybe in some ways she did, but not in others."

All of this plus the fact that Hailey wants to attend art school leads Clara to contact a surgeon about their situation and the possibility of separation. Hailey points out to Clara the lengthy recovery time from surgery as well as the possibility that one of them will die. But Clara admits that she is afraid she will be lonely once separated. She tells Hailey that she wants a chance at love and she wants freedom too. But Hailey tells her she isn't giving them a chance to see what they can accomplish.
"You're willing to die for that, Clara? We're only seventeen. We haven't really started our lives yet. We don't know what we can have and what we can make happen. Are we not going to give ourselves a chance?...I mean a chance at life as ourselves, Clara, without tearing ourselves apart."

It is Alek who shows the twins the way forward. From the beginning he tells the twins that he considers them special and he tells Hailey: "Though to be honest, I always thought it must be kind of cool, too. Like, how many people can say there's another person who understands everything about them?" When Hailey asks him if he really wants to be seen with them - two girls joined together and face the possibility that he will be called a freak, as Matt was,  he tells them "...I'd rather be a freak than a coward...What I mean is, I'd rather do what I really want to do, no matter what anyone thinks. And that's exactly what I'm doing."

Hailey's kiss with Alek makes Clara realize that she wants a full(er) life and not just a kiss from a boy. "...I wanted those things, but also a thousand other impossible things, and maybe a few possible ones too...All this wanting inside me was not going to go away. I couldn't turn it off. Something had been flickering to life inside me for years now, and it was growing steadier, and hotter too. If I tried to keep it buried much longer, I was going to go up in flames." What Clara has been wishing for all these years is being separated from Hailey - that she wants to escape Hailey. But Clara comes to realize that her fear of  how others will view them and what will be said is what is holding her back from leaving Bear Pass. Hailey explains to her that their conjoinedness is part of who they are and that they need to accept it and embrace it. That it can be part part of their strength.

Daisy and Violet Hilton

Overall, Mukherjee's novel was a very interesting exploration of an unusual medical condition and the ethical, social and personal issues involved. Her characters felt realistic and the situations the conjoined twins experienced, plausible. The title, Gemini, is a reference to the third astrological sign in the zodiac and refers to the twins Castor and Pollux.

Conjoined twins are a very rare medical condition. While most conjoined twins die in utero or shortly after birth, there have been several famous twins. One set of conjoined twins Mukherjee mentions in her novel, Daisy and Violet Hilton, were pygopagus twins born in 1908. They were abandoned by their single mother. The twins were bought by Mary Hilton who employed their mother, Kate Skinner. Mary Hilton and her husband trained the two girls as dancers and singers and then made them tour as sideshow performers. The twins were well known entertainers for many years starring in vaudeville and burlesque shows but their lives were strictly controlled and their earnings stolen from them.  Recently a documentary Bound by Flesh was made about the Hilton twins.

It's probable that in today's world, Violet and Daisy would have been separated as they were joined at the hip and spine and shared no major organs. Sadly Violet and Daisy died impoverished from the Hong Kong flu in 1969.

Gemini is an interesting novel, well done and will appeal to those who enjoy stories that focus on social and medical issues.

image credit: https://www.messynessychic.com/2015/06/18/the-original-hilton-sisters/

Book Details:

Gemini by Sonya Mukherjee
New York: Simon & Schuster     2016
326 pp.

The Fire Sermon by Francesca Haig

Before the blast, they say there'd been sermons about fire, about the end of the world. The fire itself gave the last sermon; after that there were no more.

The Fire Sermon is a dystopian novel about a world completely destroyed by a cataclysmic event and the survivors divided against one another. The blast four hundred years ago had destroyed everything, scorching the earth, filling the rivers with ash. Time was divided into Before and After.

From the bards, Cassandra and the people of her time learned that "other nations, across the sea, sending flame down from the sky" had caused a fire that consumed everything and exposed everyone to radiation. Afterwards came the Long Winter. Her father told her that "If there'd once been other lands, across the sea, there were no longer, as far as any sailor had lived to tell." There were rumours of Elsewhere, countries across the sea as well as an island where Omegas lived free of Alpha oppression.  Cass's father warns her not to ask questions about the Before, Elsewhere or the island. The people from the Before had delved too deeply into things and brought destruction upon themselves. Anything from the Before was taboo, the Electric and any other technology, most of which was destroyed in the blast.

Those who survived  the blast were deafened and blinded. Three generations after the blast and after the Long Winter during which there were almost no births, twin births began happening. The twins were always one boy and one girl, with one being robustly perfect and called the Alpha while the other twin, the Omega having some kind of imperfection. The twins were forever linked; "twins came in pairs and they died in pairs." Extreme pain, serious illness, accidents and loss of consciousness in one twin would lead to the other experiencing the same. The Omega twins were always infertile; only Alphas could produce children but they continued to produced twins. Once one of the twins was identified with a defect they were sent away to special settlements where they lived a subsistence lifestyle. The settlements were located on the least fertile land. Some Omega's who could not survive in the settlements were allowed to live in refuges near the large Alpha towns where they were fed and housed by the local Councils. They could not be allowed to die since that would mean their Alpha would die too.

While most of the defects in Omegas were physical, some Omegas had an unseen defect; the ability to have visions of both future and past events. On the outside both Zach and Cassandra appear to be physically perfect. But while her twin, Zach slept through the night, Cassandra would have dreams of large cities, of storms that would arrive the next evening and of the blast. Cass knew that her difference needed to remain hidden, otherwise she would be identified as a seer and they would be "split". And so her parents waited for their defect to become apparent so they could identify one as Omega and one as Alpha and send the defective one, the Omega twin away. Zach becomes increasingly impatient as the years pass as their status as unsplit twins prevents him from becoming part of the Alpha society. As unsplit twins, Zach and Cass are marginalized in their village, Zach being unable to attend school and the two of them taunted.

Although some parents did not want to send away their Omega child, most were happy to get rid of the Omega which they considered poison and freaks. When they were thirteen, their father fell sick with a fever and his twin, Alice was sent for. Alice lived in abject poverty in the Omega settlement she was confined to. Eventually both Alice and Cass and Zach's father die, leaving Zach in charge. The first thing Zach does is to have a Councilman come to their home and brand Cass with the Omega symbol on her forehead. Four days later Cass is sent away to live in Alice's cottage in the settlement. Cass lives there for six years before she is taken away to the town of Wyndham. In those six years Zach's life changes drastically. After an apprenticeship at the council in Wyndham, he became a Councilor. Also during this time conditions for the Omega's began to deteriorate; Omega's were forced out of long-held settlements, Alpha raiders stole cattle and destroyed crops, leading more and more Omega's to seek out the settlements. Cass's mother comes to visit her and tells her that Zach is becoming a powerful Councilor known as the Reformer. Because there are strong rivalries between the Councilors, her mother warns her that people will try to get to Zach through her. She tells Cass that many Councilors keep their Omega twins in the Keeping Rooms beneath the Council chambers at Wyndham. And this is exactly what Zach does to Cass.

Six years after arriving at the settlement, Cass is kidnapped and taken to Wyndham where she is placed in one of the Keeping Rooms. At first she is occasionally allowed out onto the ramparts of the mountainside fort. The only person who visits is an Omega woman called the Confessor who attempts to get Cass to reveal her visions to her in order to help Zach. The Confessor is able to penetrate Cass's mind and learn that she knows about the island but Cass refuses to tell her anything about her visions. Even when she shows up with a map and tries to enter more deeply into Cass's mind, and even when Zach threatens her, telling her that there are worse things being done to Omega's at the fort, Cass does not relent.

Soon Cass begins experiencing new more frightening visions of glass tanks with tubes and wiring, and eventually bodies, suspended in a viscous liquid that seemed to slow everything until even the waving of their hair was lethargic. From each drooping mouth, a tube...Most had their eyes closed, but even those few with open eyes wore entirely blank expressions,..." The dreams of the tanks continue for three years but then change when Cass begins seeing an empty tank and then herself in one of the tanks. Desperate to get out of her cell she sends Zach a message begging him to allow her outside for ten minutes in exchange for information about an important dream. When Zach takes her outside however, Cass manages to trick him, locking him inside and finding her way into the mysterious tank room. There she finds hundreds of tanks with human beings in them who seem to be half alive. However one of the tanks contains a young man who seems alert. Cass after a great deal of effort manages to break the tank and extract the man from the tank. Together the two of them escape the compound and flee into the wilderness. The boy who is Cass's age has no memory of his life before being in the tank. The fact that he is missing an arm means he is an Omega. Cass names him Kip and together they decide to try to find their way to the island the Council is so determined to locate. It is a journey that will lead to both uncovering Zach's sinister plan for the Omegas and one of them making the ultimate sacrifice.

Discussion

The Fire Sermon is yet another dystopian novel in a genre that has dominated young adult fiction for the past five years and continues to do so. Its plot is typical - a post apocalyptic world so devastated that the survivors must make impossible decision to survive. In Fire Sermon the survivors of "the blast" are born in pairs, one perfect (Alpha) twin and one (Omega) twin with a defect. The Omega twins, who are considered the carriers of the "poison" from the blast that ruined their society, are isolated from the Alphas. The Omega twins are all but starved and abandoned, and the only thing keeping them alive is that their death will kill their Alpha twin. Like most societies in a dystopia, information is strictly controlled. The people are told that any contact with technology from the Before is taboo and this is strictly enforced by punishments. However most of the Omegas and the Alphas do not know that the Alpha leaders are using whatever Before technology they can to implement a "final solution" of sorts - where all the Omegas are placed in tanks in a sort of stasis so that the Alphas can live a life unencumbered by their weaker twin. It is a society that is turned on itself. Alphas against Omegas and the pursuit of perfection.

Into this story, inject the themes of family, loyalty and acceptance.  One of the dominant themes is that of acceptance and looking for what we have in common instead of focusing on our differences. Cass begins to understand this when her Aunt Alice, her father's Omega twin is brought to their home, very sick. While nursing her, Zach asks her what is wrong with her because her defect is not readily apparent. Alice explains her minor physical defect but she also astutely points out to Zach "If we were all so drastically different from Alphas, darling, why would they need to brand us?"

When Zach visits Cass in the Keeping Rooms he tells her that they have only one life between them, that this is the way the world works. Cass challenges him to change the world. "...You said you want to be a big, important person and change the world. It didn't occur to you that we were changing the world, every day day we weren't split?"

Unlike the Council, the Assembly, Zach or Owen, Cass doesn't want to take sides. She wants all people, the Omega's and the Alpha's to live in harmony. When a vision reveals to Cass that the Alpha's are planning to attack the Omega island, Cass is determined to convince the Omega leader, Piper, not to fight them. She tells him that it's a fight they cannot win because for every Alpha they kill, an Omega will die. When he responds that this is the same for the Alphas once again she reiterates that he is "only ever looking at half the story."

When the attack comes Cass states, "For me, each was a two-fold dying. With each Alpha soldier killed, I felt, and sometimes saw, an Omega on the mainland fall...Each of the deaths had its echo, and I saw them all..." 

This also leads Cass to attempt to get Piper and Zach to view their twins in a different way. When Cass meets Piper's Alpha twin, Zoe, she begins to understand that because he and his twin have been working together, "he must know what it was to see your twin as something other than an opposite." Cass knows that Piper and Zoe's experience of living together along with her and Zach's thirteen years unsplit are proof that life could be different if enough people want to change it. When Zoe defends the idea of the island, Cass tells her that no matter how many islands they find, the problem remains: the Alpha's view of the Omegas.

Despite the harshness of Cass's post nuclear world, there is still plenty of care and love. The Omega's build a society based on love in contrast to the Alpha's utilitarian approach.But Cass is a determined heroine, fighting to try to unite her broken society and believing that the twins, sharing that bond of family can somehow unite and work together to make a better world.

Readers will find Fire Sermon and engaging read, despite its predictability and lack of a cliffhanger ending. Fire Sermon is part of a trilogy, with the next book due out in 2016, so readers will want to check out the second book to see where Cass's travels take her next.



Francesca Haig taught creative writing at the University of Chester before her debut novel, The Fire Sermon garnered her a good deal with HarperVoyager of the U.K. Haig says her novel originated with the idea of twins who shared a fatal bond and from that concept she developed the rest of her story. Haig was keen to include many characters with disabilities as a way of reflecting the diverse society we live in.

Book Details:

The Fire Sermon by Francesca Haig
Toronto: Gallery Books     2015
370 pp.

Erasing Time by C.J. Hill

Taylor and Sheridan Bradford are twins who are anything but normal. Taylor is a brilliant scientist, working on her doctorate in particle physics at University of Texas. Sheridan is the more normal of the two, a typical eighteen-year-old in her senior year, hoping to study English.

That is until the day they are whisked 400 years into the future by scientists  from a city named Traventon. These men are looking for a famous scientist named Tyler Sherwood and it's obvious they erred in capturing the girls instead. Or did they?

Life in America, 400 years into the future is, as expected, vastly different from what Taylor and Sheridan are familiar with. America is no longer a united country, but instead divided into city-states which exist under domes and are often at war with one another. There are at least two rebel factions, the Davine who are a subversive force that have infiltrated the government and all the professions, and the DW known as doctor worshipers who believe in freedom of speech, knowledge and belief.

The first people Sheridan and Taylor see upon awakening are Echo Monterro and his father Jeth. Echo has light-blue hair and a turquoise crescent moon around his left eye. Jeth has maroon hair and a large green dots on his face. Most of the other men in the room are similarly decorated. It becomes immediately apparent to both girls that people 400 years into the future, speak an unfamiliar version of English and dress very strangely, often having dyed hair and colourful face art. While Taylor and Sheridan quickly learn how to decipher the modern language which has bits of Spanish intermingled, the 25th century men and women cannot understand their English, the exception being Jeth and Echo. This is because Echo and Jeth are wordsmiths, whose specialty is the language of 20th and 21st century America. As a result, Jeth and Echo are assigned to look after Taylor and Sheridan.

Echo immediately realizes that the two girls are twins, just like he and his brother Joseph were. He seeks to hide this information from the scientists because he knows this will place them in grave danger. When Jeth and Echo take Taylor and Sheridan on a tour of the city, Sheridan begins to notice that despite religion being banned, there are religious symbols everywhere. For example, Sheridan sees what she believes is a nun caring for children. Since everyone in this future society is heavily costumed, the nuns go unrecognized. But their long black dresses with a white circular collar and black hair, dyed white around the face like a wimple are unmistakable to 21st century Sheridan.

In the conversation with Echo Sheridan learns much about this future Earth. The people are vegetarians. Everyone has a tracking crystal implanted in their right wrist, making it impossible to go anywhere undetected. The city of Traventon is enclosed in an electrified dome which prevents the inhabitants from leaving. Computer usage is monitored and those who don't follow the rules or rebel against authority have their minds erased. Babies are not conceived the natural way and couples don't marry.

It takes the scientists, led my a man named Helix,  some time but they eventually discover that Taylor is in fact the Tyler Sherwood whom they want. And they want Taylor because they need her expertise to perfect a devastating new weapon - based on something Taylor herself created 400 years earlier.

Taylor eventually tells Sheridan about her doctoral research. Taylor, using the pseudonym Taylor Sherwood, wrote scientific papers in the 21st century describing a transporter she helped design as part of her research. This device, known as a "quark-gluon plasma converter" or QGP. is capable of transporting matter from one place to another by converting it to energy (remember Star Trek!). Taylor was working on it with Dr. Branscomb who strangely enough, died shortly after Taylor disappeared. The work of the QGP was taken over by Dr. Don Reilly, Branscombe's partner. But then two months later he also disappeared.

Taylor and Sheridan consider that Reilly might also be in Traventon, 400 years in the future. These scientists used their Time Strainer in the future to send signals to the QGP in the past to capture people from the past four centuries. Taylor decides that she must send a signal from the future, from the Time Strainer to her QGP in the past to destroy it. This is the only way to prevent no one else from the past being brought forward into the future.

They decide to enlist Echo to help them break into the Scicenter to destroy Taylor's QGP. Although they manage to do this, Helix is now after both Taylor and Sheridan because he has learned that the Time Strainer really did capture Tyler Sheridan.  Meanwhile both Taylor and Sheridan discover that Dr. Reilly has indeed been time strained into the future and that he is working with Helix to further develop the QGP. Taylor and Sheridan now know they can no longer stay in Traventon. But who do they trust? Can they trust Echo who they are certain is part of the Dakine?

When Echo makes an astounding revelation, the situation becomes even more complex. Pursued outside the city by Helix, all must fight for their freedom. They learn that Helix has another QGP that can be used to turn people into energy waves. Possession of such a weapon could create a huge imbalance between the city states leading to all out war.

Discussion  

Erasing Time was one of the best young adult novels written this year. It had an engaging great story line with unexpected twists, a well developed and plausible dystopian world, and fascinating, well drawn characters. The element of time travel along with a dose of romance enhances the level of interest. Unlike many YA novels today, there is no objectionable content in this book.

The story is told in both Sheridan and Echo's voices which are believable and have great depth. Echo is a young man who cares for Sheridan and who is looking for a relationship that is real. He loves Sheridan's simplicity and honesty which shine through her personality. And he also admires that she stands up for what she believes in and that she is courageous. But Echo is a complex character, troubled by a terrible secret.

C.J. Hill is the pen name of Janette Rallison, well known for her romantic comedy novels among them, Just One Wish and My Fair Godmother. Of course, Erasing Time will be followed by what promises to be a thrilling sequel.

Book Details:
Erasing Time by C.J. Hill
Katherine Tegen Books 2012
361 pp.

Dangerous Neighbors by Beth Kephart

It is the late summer of 1876 and the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia is on. Seventeen-year-old Katherine's twin sister Anna died this past February 6th and she is convinced it was her fault. So one hot September day, Katherine sets out for the exhibition determined to end her life.  

After the death of Anna in February, Katherine had taken to walking the ridge along the river or the heights of St. George's Hill, trying to find the courage for what she plans to do. Meanwhile her father and mother appear to have gone on living, having breakfast served by their cook, Jeannie Bea and reading their morning papers. Her father who works at the Philadelphia National Bank, is constantly looking for trends and indicators for the future, while her mother is preoccupied with women's rights, and tea and crackers. There was no investigation in to Anna's death.

Katherine has waited on their front porch for her mother to come home from one her many ladies' meetings, or outside her bedroom door hoping for the chance to tell her what happened. "Let me tell you what has happened, she has tried to say. Blame me so that you might forgive me, so that I might forgive myself." 

But her mother simply insists that the past remain in the past and that they look to the future. Katherine knows that when she is gone, life for her parents will simply go on as before.

So on this day Katherine has chosen the Colosseum as the place "she will fly and soon feel nothing." She enters the Colosseum at 4PM and takes the Otis elevator to the balconied tower. There are stairs to cliimb higher, but also a set of  then windows above the cyclorama that lead out onto the roof. From there it is a straight drop onto the street. "The smack of absolution."  Once out on the roof, Katherine now has to wait until five o'clock when the crowds leave.

When a hawk perches near her and stares at the window, Katherine realizes that Bennett, her sister Anna's lover has followed her. He's been following her for months. With one leg out the window he tells her not to do what she's planning, that this is not what Anna would want. He pulls her through the window ending her attempt.

Katherine and Anna had been born twenty minutes apart, with Katherine the younger of the twins. They both had ginger hair and green-gray eyes. Anna was more inquisitive, and the one who seems to indulge in risky behaviour. Katherine always was on guard,  They attended Girls' High and Normal School on Sergeant Street where there were classes in algebra and Shakespeare. Anna liked to pass notes to Mary Phelps at the back of the class. Then last April something changed.

Anna had revealed that the boy at the bakery on Walnut likes her. Whenever they came to the bakery, he'd give Anna something extra, sweet rolls or a slice of coconut pie. So that afternoon in April, while their father was at lunch at Union and their mother was hosting a butter sculptor, Anna had decided not to attend her lesson at Miss Louise's School of Elocution. After sending Jeannie Bea to let the school know she asked Katherine to accompany her to Crowell & Granger, then to the tailor as DeWees. Anna states that she has a gift for Bennett, however, Katherine reminds her that her father hopes to marry her to Alan Carver. But Anna is not interested in Alan. At Crowell's, aided by Mrs. Childress, Anna choses material for new dresses for their seventeenth birthday. And afterward, Anna had visited Bennett in the bakery. Katherine realized that night that Anna had fallen in love with Bennett, the baker's boy.

Once again Katherine decides to make another attempt to end her life. With her mother off to yet another meeting at Mrs. Gillespie's, she leaves her home on Delancey and takes the streetcar to the Trans-Continental Hotel. Katherine follows a young girl with a white bird in a cage and ends up at the Operti's Tropical Garden where Guiseppie Operti and his orchestra will be performing that night, and where the girl's father plays the clarinet. The young girl lets her white bird, named Snow out of its guilded cage to fly around the beautiful space that is painted with gorgeous frescoes. Katherine returns home.

On September 9, Katherine finds herself at the Centennial's south gate above the Schuylkill River and wanders through the exhibition until she reaches the west entrance and is exhausted. Katherine remembers the events of last August during the summer before Anna's death in February. Their father announced that they would be vacationing with the Carvers during the third week of August at Cape May. Anna was not happy about this as she wants nothing to do with Alan Carver, the boy her father is set on having her marry. Katherine and Anna quarrelled as Katherine attempted to get her sister to stop lying and to tell their father what's been going on. Anna doesn't do this even as Katherine diverts Alan's attentions by dancing two valses with him.

Still seated at the Centennial Exhibition, Katherine recalls a particular November day. The two sisters had gone out to do shopping errands that morning after breakfast. But they also stop at the bakery where Anna has Katherine stand watch as she goes in and spends time with Bennett. While she is standing by the door, a young man named William stops by wanting to enter the bakery. William peers into the window and he and Katherine see Anna and Bennett kissing. Ashamed and overhearing Anna tell Bennett that she is forever disappointing Katherine, she leaves and goes home alone. It is at this point that Katherine decides to leave Anna to herself: she spends time with someone else at school, she walks  home alone and doesn't speak to her sister for weeks.

But it is the events of New Years Eve that finally make Katherine reach a decision regarding Anna. Katherine decides that she can no longer save Anna. "That night Katherine gave up trying to talk sense into Anna. That night she did not try to argue her twin sister out of her gargantuan joy; she did not try to save her. It was then that Katherine decided to begin to look the other way on purpose, but this time without anger, without the intent to prove a point. She decided to stop protecting Anna, so that she might love her more truly."

It is this decision that Katherine believes makes her responsible for Anna's death. She stopped watching out for Anna. Still intent on ending her life, it is a series of events that September day at the Centennial Exhibition, meeting Bennett, comforting the little girl who has lost her bird Snow, and meeting William that help Katherine face the reality of Anna's accidental death and how living her life is the answer to her unspeakable loss.

Discussion

Dangerous Neighbors is a historical fiction novel about the coming of age of twin sisters set against the backfrop of the Centennial Exhibition in Philadephia. 

The Centennial International Exhibition was held from May 10 to November 10, 1876 in Philadelphia. The exposition was located at the Fairmont Park along the Schuylkill River. Instead of one large building there were five main buildings along with numerous smaller exhibition buildings that featured different nations. Katherine visits the Colosseum, a round building which exhibited a cyclorama entitled "Paris by Night". It was an immersive oil painting that extended from floor to ceiling to create the illusion of being in Paris. The Colusseum building also featured a tower that exposition visitors could climb.

Kephart ably describes the fair and gives modern readers a sense of the setting with the modern up-to-date novelties on display at the fair across the street from Shantytown with its prostitutes and hucksters and the squalor of its wooden shacks. "The wonders of the world slide past. Parisian corsets cavorting on their pedestals. Vases on lacquered shelves. Folding beds. Walls of cutlery. The sweetest assortment of sugar-coated pills, all set to sail on a yacht.....   At the intersection of the main aisle and the central transept is a palace of jewels: Tiffany, Starr & Marcus, Caldwell. ...See these cinnamon colored cameos; this diamond necklace; these perfect solitaires; these black, white, and pink pearls...."

The novel also incorporates the Shanty Town fire that occurred in Philadelphia on September 9, 1876. The fire began in an establishment on Elm Street across from the Centennial International Exhibition. Although Philadelphia had banned the construction of wooden buildings, Elm Street was filled with restaurants and hotels. The fire spread from the Broadway Oyster House to surrounding buildings very quickly.

The novel opens with Katherine attempting to jump from the Colosseum building at the Centennial International Exhibition. Katherine is wracked with guilt over her twin sister Anna's death in February. Anna died in an accident while skating on the Schuylkill River.  Their relationship has been frought with tension and dysfunction.  Although Katherine was the younger of the twins, somehow she had taken on the role of the older, protective twin, always watching out for her more self-absorbed, reckless and impulsive sister. With their parents seemingly disengaged and absorbed in their own lives, it fell to Katherine to be watchful and on guard. She felt responsible for her sister. Katherine was "responsible for interrupting Anna's drift towards the perilous, for fixing the fences and defining the borders, the edges, the ends. Anna listened to Katherine when it was important, because Katherine's talent had never been beauty; it was saving, rescue." 

Unable to save Anna that past February, Katherine is experiencing intense guilt. As she spends time at the Centennial Exhibition Katherine has time to remember the months leading up to the accident. The April prior to her death, Anna had become interested in Bennett, a boy outside her social class who worked at the bakery on Walnut. When Katherine learns of Anna's attachment she warns her that their father has Alan Carver "in mind" for her. And so when they go out on a shopping trip that ends in a stop at the bakery, Katherine goes along "To make sure that nothing unforgiveable happened in the pitch of an adventure."  That night Katherine realizes that "Anna had fallen in love with Benett: Katherine had lost her."  

During their vacation at Cape May, Katherine found herself caught in the middle. Her father suspects something isn't quite right with Anna but Katherine, caught in the middle, feels she cannot reveal her sister's secret. "She wanted to confess the truth and be done with it."And so when they are alone Katherine attempts to point out their father is doing what he believes is best for her, but Anna is having none of it stating that it is all a charade and that  "They've put me on the auction block"  Katherine  reminds Anna that she has been forced to be responsible for Anna and that she should have been honest about what was going on with Bennett. Katherine begs her to tell father about Bennett, stating "But you have to tell Father about Bennett, Anna, and soon. Promise me that. You've turned us both into liars." Katherine tells Anna that she is being unfair to their parents, to Bennett, and to her by putting her in the middle.  Although Katherine feels abandoned by Anna, she loves her sister too much to do the right thing and tell their parents. 

However, after Cape May Anna continues to lie, sneaking out even during the night to see Bennett.This continues throughout the fall and even during New Years celebrations, and finally to the day the two sisters go skating on the Schuylkill River. The circunstances of Anna's death are not revealed until well into the novel. While Katherine is enjoying learning how to spin on ice skates, Anna skates towards the dam and falls through the thin ice, Bennett unable to save her.

After Anna's death, Bennett has been attempting to talk to Katherine for months, even writing letters to her, but she has spurned all his attempts. His concern for Katherine leads Bennett to save her from the first attempt to end her life.  Eventually Katherine and Bennett meet a second time, on September 9th in the Main Exhibition Hall. She accuses Bennett of not saving Anna and of stealing Anna from her. She is referring to the loss of Anna well before she died and their secret Katherine is now forced to keep forever, of Anna and Bennett. He tells her that he could not save Anna and that she is not responsible for her sister's death. Faced with this reality, Katherine's identity is shattered. "For if Katherine isn't needed for anything, if she is no longer responsible for Anna, who is she now? What can she give?" 

As she reflects after Bennett leaves, Katherine realizes that she had to let go of her sister, in order to keep at least some part of Anna's heart. She remembers,  "By October, Katherine understood that she had this choice: either settle her debts with her sister, or lose her altogether. There could be no more fighting about Bennett. No more accusations, either way...She would leave Anna and her lies and her Bennett be, for the return of at least some fraction of Anna's heart."  This was very difficult for Katherine because she has been so enmeshed with watching out for Anna's recklessness. It is why she feels so guilty over her sister's death.

After the fire, when Katherine is searching for William the young man who finds lost animals and whom she has seen before near her home, she comes to the realization that Bennett really tried to save Anna, that he would have gone after her but they wouldn't let him. She knows she must forgive both him and herself. As she's searching to make sure William is safe after helping rescue animals from the Shanty Town fire, Katherine encounters the little girl who is looking for her bird, Snow. When the little girl asks Katherine what will happen if Snow isn't found, Katherine tells her, "Then you will always have Snow in your heart..."  Katherine has stumbled upon the realization that in moments of desolate loss, one needs to go on living. That in living, the memory of Anna will live on too. "Anna in her heart, she thinks. Katherine living, staying alive, so that Anna lives within."

The novel takes its title from a phrase Katherine's father offers during their stay at Cape May. While talking about Anna, Katherine's father tells her that the world is changing and that Anna doesn't understand, "that there are among us dangerous neighbors." Katherine wonders if the baker's son is a "dangerous neighbor".  Later on she twice sees a young man, with "wheat-colored hair" and eyes "...the color of a river at night". The young man is not from her social status: she's seen him capturing a pig in a neighbor's yard and then sees him again outside the bakery. He speaks to Katherine but he has no business speaking to her. "He was from another side of town. He was from another place. Dangerous neighbors, her father has said... Katherine studied him, decided against deciding he was handsome, though he was --- undeniably he was." At the end of the novel, Katherine decides to act on her attraction to William - a man who seems respectful and whom she admires because he rescues things that are lost. 

Although the novel focuses on the emotional turmoil of the surviving twin Katherine, her parents are remote, secondary characters,  a common feature in young adult novels. Katherine and Anna's parents seem self-absorbed and almost completely disengaged from their daughters' lives. There appears to be no repercussions to Anna's rude treatment of Alan Carver and Anna appears to come and go without her parents even remotely aware of her activities. And her visits to the bakery and even kissing Bennett in the store seem unrealistic - one wonders where was the baker?

While Dangerous Neighbors is an intriguing novel, its structure is somewhat confusing. Instead of chapters the novel might have been better divided into Present and Past. The reader doesn't know how Anna died until near the end of the novel, although there are hints that it has to do with the river. Nevertheless, Kephart manages to convey the dysfunctional relationship between the two sisters and the intense guilt and self-reproach that Katherine experiences. Dangerous Neighbors has at it's core themes of loss, guilt, and redemption. Dangerous Neighbors is a good, short read for teens looking for something different.

Book Details:
Dangerous Neighbors by Beth Kephart
New York: Laura Geringer Books, Egmont USA 2010
176 pp.