Jake and Lily are twins. Sure, they are a little different – Lily’s got a temper, Jake’s always calm – but in many ways, they feel like two halves of the same person. When one of them is in trouble or in pain, the other one just knows it; they can communicate without words; it’s a secret “power” they call the goombla and sharing it means everything.
But the summer they turn 11, things change. Their parents decide it’s time for them to have separate rooms. Jake starts hanging out with a group of guys from down the street, and Lily, well, Lily feels lost and alone for the first time in her life. As she struggles to find a life of her own and work through her anger at being abandoned, Jake finds it really challenging to deal with the neighborhood bully and decide who he really wants to be.
Jake and Lily, Jerry Spinelli’s latest, captures with perfection the languid summer days spent waiting for something to happen while everything is changing. Jake and Lily take turns narrating the story of the summer that changed their relationship, and through each one’s eyes, you can easily share in the confusion and the possibility that defines this time in life.
- Posted by Cori