Desperate Measures

Gr 4—7—This debut novel, told in alternating chapters by 13-year-old twins, Vicky and Rhianna Davies, recounts the desperate measures three siblings take to keep from being split up by the foster care system. The sisters are very different, with Vicky looking after her learning disabled twin as well as her younger brother, Jamie, who has behavioral issues. When their mother's death puts their father on a course that ends with his imprisonment, the kids are placed with foster parents. A difficult pregnancy in that home means that they will be separated, and they decide to run away to an elderly aunt's cottage. They are able to elude authorities and some teen bullies, and all ends on a hopeful note. While the narrators' voices ring true, the plot is predictable and the secondary characters, especially the unsympathetic social workers, are stereotypical. This novel is reminiscent of Cynthia Voigt's Homecoming (Ballantine, 1983), with a similar plot, a strong female teenager as the leader, a feisty and obstreperous younger brother, and a sister in need of caretaking. Perhaps because Homecoming was written in the less dangerous time of the 1980s, the Tillermans' journey seems more believable. That the Davies children get as far as they do, with the help of adults who don't notify the police, seems harder to fathom. The book's real appeal lies in the well-developed, sympathetic character of Rhianna; through her, readers begin to understand issues around being learning disabled and different.—Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME