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The Phantom Twin
CCBC Review:
Jane and Isabel Peabody are white conjoined twins who share an arm and a leg. Sold as small children to a circus “freak” show during what appears to be the 1920s, they form a family with the other performers. After a doctor performs a new operation to separate them as teenagers, Isabel awakens from the procedure to learn that Jane didn’t survive the surgery. But, for Isabel, Jane is still there, like a phantom limb. And Jane is full of resentment that Isabel survived and she did not. With a crude prosthetic arm and leg, Isabel continues with the sideshow act, now billed as The Mechanical Girl. Haunted and lonely, she is tricked into talking about the fakery in the acts by an undercover journalist who publishes an exposé that gets her kicked out of the sideshow. Eventually finding love with a tattoo artist, Isabel and her phantom twin reconcile their conflict. Isabel and the others in the sideshow appear as fully developed, distinct characters. An excellent author’s note offers more insight into freak shows, including the ableism and ethnocentrism inherent in these displays, and her own discomfort with the subject. A muted, sometimes moody, palette colors this cleanly illustrated graphic novel that depicts the phantom version of Jane as uncolored with black outlines. ©2021 Cooperative Children’s Book Center
Illustrated by Lisa Brown
CCBC Age Recommendation: Age 13 and older
Age Range:
Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-13)
Grades 9-12 (Age 14 and older)
Format:
Graphic Novel
Subjects:
Ableism
Anger
Fantasy
Grief and Loss
Jealousy/Envy
Journalism and Media
Loneliness
Sisters
Supernatural
Diversity subject:
Physical Disability/Condition
Publishers:
First Second, Roaring Brook
Publish Year: 2020
Pages: 202
ISBN: 9781626729247
CCBC Location: Non-Fiction, 741.5 Brown