The Twin

Gr 9 Up–Identical twins Ivy and Iris have never been close. When their parents divorced six years ago, Ivy stayed with her father in their quiet small town, and Iris moved to the city with their mother, who subsequently died in a tragic accident. When Iris moves back in with Ivy and their father, Ivy notices something strange about her: Iris is secretive and sneaky and doesn’t seem to have any friends. At first Ivy writes off these quirks as grief, but soon it starts to feel as if Iris doesn’t want to be a part of her life, she wants to take over Ivy’s life: her friends, her teachers, even her spot on the swim team. As Iris gets bolder, Ivy gets more and more suspicious, but the weirder things get, the less people believe her. With a fairly straightforward plot, readers looking for multiple twists may be disappointed, but Ivy is a sympathetic character, and rooting for her makes the pages fly. Readers will either love the ending or hate it, but either way, it’s memorable.