Les premières lignes/ The first lines

- This is a story about me, Lily.
- And me, Jake.
- We're twins and we're exactly alike.
- Not exactly!
- Whatever. This is a book we wrote about the summer we turned eleven and Jake ditched me.
- Please. I just started hanging out with some guys in the neighborhood.
- Right. So anyway, this is a book about
- goobers and supergoobers
- bullies
- clubhouses
- true friends
- things getting built and wrecked and rebuilt
- and about figuring out who we are.
- We wrote this together
(sort of)
- so you'll get to see both sides of our story.
- But you'll probably agree with my side.
- You always have to have the last word, don't you?
- Yes!

Le contenu / Content

This excellent novel by Jerry Spinelli about friendship, bullying, courage and respect and also about what it means to be a twin is a great read told from the alternating voices of 11-year-old  Jake and Lily. Indeed, the story is told from both the twins’ point of view at the beginning of the book and then, when the separation between the twins starts, they use journals to talk about their unique feelings.  Jake and Lily can read each other’s thoughts and they know each other’s spots when they play hide and seek. They are very close and even share the same dream every year on their birthday. But, on their 11th birthday, their parents decide that they shouldn’t share a bedroom anymore. This is a first big separation, especially for Lily who tends to find it very difficult to be separated from her brother. Lily starts to feel lost, she confides in her grandad, Poppy who tries to give her advice on how to be herself while her brother finds new friends. He becomes part of the Death Ray gang. Soon, Jake and his friends find a “super goober”. A “super goober” is a child they find they can mock! But this super goober has a name, Ernie, and he’s just a kid like anyone else…
The author of this wonderful book manages to make you feel each and every moment deeply. The reader really feels he’s sharing Jake and Lily’s life as twins and as individuals too.

Magalie Bocquet

Pistes d’écriture/ Activities to participate in the festival

1-Imagine you are Lily’s grandpa. Create a text message conversation on a smart phone with Lily to give her advice on how to make new friends, be yourself and stand on your own.

2- After reading pages 12 to 16 and then pages 239-240, write Lily’s letter to her brother about her feelings on their 11th birthday.

3-Ernie’s parents have discovered their son is being bullied (page 323). Write a dialogue in which you imagine their conversation with the nurse at the hospital.