Reviews & Giveaways

By Susan M. Heim

For those of us born after the 1950s, we cannot imagine the terror that gripped families every summer as polio swept through their communities, killing and crippling hundreds and thousands of people, particularly children. For six-year-old Janice Flood, polio became an integral part of her family history. In 1953, her twin brother Frankie died of polio, and Jan was left temporarily crippled by the disease. Although she was fortunate to regain full movement after intensive therapy, she nearly lost her son during his birth due to her physical deformities brought on by polio, and Janice suffers today from many symptoms of post-polio syndrome. Worst of all, though, she will always mourn the loss of a twin brother who never reached his full potential. From the age of six, she would always be a "twinless twin." Click to read the rest of this entry

Why won't anyone sit with me at lunch? Why aren't I in the popular crowd? What can I do about "frenemies"? These are the types of questions that cause tremendous angst for middle-school girls. And if you have twins, you're likely to hear these comments twice as often! So, how do you find the answers? Now there's help. The publishers of Discovery Girls magazine have developed a series of books called the Fab Girls Guides to help girls navigate the ups and downs of middle school. Click to read the rest of this entry

by Susan M. Heim

Suppose you were adopted and decided to try to find out a little information about your birth family. In the course of your investigation, you discover that you have an identical twin that you never knew existed! And, on top of that shocking news, you learn that you were separated as infants as part of a secret study on twins. This story may seem unbelievable, but it actually happened to Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein. Click to read the rest of this entry