I don't remember much about this book, but I flipped through it the last time I was at the library and remembered bits and pieces.

Fifteen is great for the little girl who dreams of being a teen (and later) a grown up - a sweet, innocent glimpse into these years. Cleary is a fantastic writer for this age group.

When I read this book, little did I know that YEARS later I would meet a girl with boing boing curls, and she would let me pull them to watch them go 'bo-o-o-oing!"

This book was wonderfully sad. :(

I loved the parallelism of this story to the Jacob/Esau story. I wonder if this tension Paterson draws on is something many twins face in their elementary and teen lives? I imagine it would be.

I actually didn't like any of the characters, but I still loved this book: Paterson was upfront about all of their flaws--Louise was jealous, Caroline was arrogant, Call was annoying, Captain was creepy, grandma was psycho and jealous. I felt the deep hurt that Caroline never called her sister by her real name--but Louise had her own issues as well. This was definitely deserving of a Newbery.

Pairings: My Sister's Keeper.

This was also a weaker book––almost like they *had* to go to all the places on the map in the beginning. It felt like a filler book––why did the capturing happen?

Still, the tree in this book is a cool idea. Several of the images are excellent.

For whatever reason, I get this book and The Doll in the Garden confused. For that reason, The Secret Garden has always had a creepy feel to me. ;)