The Reading Warehouse

Beloved Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli, author of Maniac Magee and Wringer, addresses issues of identity, belonging, family, and bullying in this humorous and heartfelt novel about twins.

Jake and Lily are twins. Despite their slightly different interests and temperaments, they feel exactly the same--like two halves of one person.

But the year they turn eleven, everything changes. Their parents announce it's time for separate bedrooms. Jake starts hanging out with a pack of boys on the block. And Lily is devastated, not to mention angry. Who is she without Jake?

And as her brother falls under the influence of the neighborhood bully, he also must ask himself--who is the real Jake?

In a starred review, Publishers Weekly praised this smart and funny story. The New York Times Book Review extolled Jerry Spinelli as a poet of the prepubescent and added: Nobody is better than Spinelli when it comes to creating the grade-school world of qualified innocence--and treading a fine line between challenge and reassurance."

Jerry Spinelli received the Newbery Medal for Maniac Magee and a Newbery Honor for Wringer. His other books include Stargirl; Love, Stargirl; Smiles to Go; Loser; Jake and Lily; Hokey Pokey; and The Warden's Daughter. His novels are recognized for their humor and poignancy, and his characters and situations are often drawn from his real-life experience as a father of six children. Jerry lives with his wife, Eileen, also a writer, in Wayne, Pennsylvania.