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kid

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Double Trouble

by: Joanne Levy  

Ages

9+
How far would you go to make a new friend? Would you pretend to be your own identical twin? Tori did, and it got her into big trouble!
Ages 9+
Pages 144
Publisher Orca Book Publishers
Coming Apr 2024

Average Rating

193 Reviews
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12-year-old Tori lives with her father and grandmother. Her best friend has moved away, making this the most boring summer ever. One day, on her way home from a bar mitzvah, Tori meets Jazzy, her neighbors’ granddaughter who is visiting for two weeks. Jazzy admires Tori’s sense of style, not knowing that Tori can’t stand dressing up. A few hours later, Jazzy finds Tori working in her garden, wearing dirty overalls and handling worm casings (aka poop). Jazzy doesn’t seem to recognize Tori, so Tori tells her that the girl she met earlier in the dress was her twin sister, Vicky. Over the next two weeks, Tori tries to keep up the charade of being her own twin in order to sustain her friendship with Jazzy.

  • At the beginning of the book, Tori and her father and grandmother are coming home from a bat mitzvah service at synagogue, and they comment on how well the bat mitzvah girl did chanting her Torah portion. Tori is about to start her own bat mitzvah training, which she is sad to do without her best friend, who recently moved away.
  • Tori’s family and friends celebrate the Jewish holidays, including Hanukkah, Purim, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur.

  • A smart and creative girl, Tori loves working in her organic garden and wants to be a food scientist and solve world food problems when she grows up.
 
  • Tori’s Bubby is kind, supportive, and knows and accepts Tori exactly as she is.

Tori’s mother passed away when she was a baby. Although Tori doesn’t remember her and isn’t traumatized by the loss, it is mentioned a few times over the course of the book.
 

Have you ever been in a situation where you felt like you needed to dress or behave in a certain way or pretend to be different from who you really are? What was that like? Would you do it again?

The most famous Jewish twins are  the biblical Jacob and Esau, the sons of Isaac and Rebekah. In a shocking display of poor judgment, the older Esau trades his birthright (which confers not only leadership of the family but also a double portion of the inheritance) to Jacob in exchange for a bowl of stew. Later on, Rebekah encourages Jacob to pretend to be Esau by dressing in his brother’s clothes and covering his arms in lambskin in order to secure Isaac’s blessing. Isaac, who is nearly blind, confers his blessing on Jacob, thus cementing Jacob’s right to the birthright. Jacob flees in order to escape Esau’s rage, and in an ironic twist, is later tricked into marrying his beloved Rachel’s older sister Leah.
What the Book Is About

12-year-old Tori lives with her father and grandmother. Her best friend has moved away, making this the most boring summer ever. One day, on her way home from a bar mitzvah, Tori meets Jazzy, her neighbors’ granddaughter who is visiting for two weeks. Jazzy admires Tori’s sense of style, not knowing that Tori can’t stand dressing up. A few hours later, Jazzy finds Tori working in her garden, wearing dirty overalls and handling worm casings (aka poop). Jazzy doesn’t seem to recognize Tori, so Tori tells her that the girl she met earlier in the dress was her twin sister, Vicky. Over the next two weeks, Tori tries to keep up the charade of being her own twin in order to sustain her friendship with Jazzy.

  • At the beginning of the book, Tori and her father and grandmother are coming home from a bat mitzvah service at synagogue, and they comment on how well the bat mitzvah girl did chanting her Torah portion. Tori is about to start her own bat mitzvah training, which she is sad to do without her best friend, who recently moved away.
  • Tori’s family and friends celebrate the Jewish holidays, including Hanukkah, Purim, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur.

  • A smart and creative girl, Tori loves working in her organic garden and wants to be a food scientist and solve world food problems when she grows up.
 
  • Tori’s Bubby is kind, supportive, and knows and accepts Tori exactly as she is.

Tori’s mother passed away when she was a baby. Although Tori doesn’t remember her and isn’t traumatized by the loss, it is mentioned a few times over the course of the book.
 

Have you ever been in a situation where you felt like you needed to dress or behave in a certain way or pretend to be different from who you really are? What was that like? Would you do it again?

The most famous Jewish twins are  the biblical Jacob and Esau, the sons of Isaac and Rebekah. In a shocking display of poor judgment, the older Esau trades his birthright (which confers not only leadership of the family but also a double portion of the inheritance) to Jacob in exchange for a bowl of stew. Later on, Rebekah encourages Jacob to pretend to be Esau by dressing in his brother’s clothes and covering his arms in lambskin in order to secure Isaac’s blessing. Isaac, who is nearly blind, confers his blessing on Jacob, thus cementing Jacob’s right to the birthright. Jacob flees in order to escape Esau’s rage, and in an ironic twist, is later tricked into marrying his beloved Rachel’s older sister Leah.