Reviewed by Breanna F. for TeensReadToo.com
"Black Swans: events that are hugely important, rare, and unpredictable, and explainable only after the fact."
One day, Missy Vianello hears someone on the radio talking about babies, and she starts to wonder about her family. Missy and her cousin, Claire Linnehan, have been best friends since they were little. They choose the same type of clothing most of the time, and they can even finish each other's sentences. It's so weird to Missy that she has so many questions she wants to ask her parents, but she's afraid to ask. Not that anything could be possible anyway, since Claire is eight weeks older and Missy was always so much smaller than Claire up until a year or so ago.
When Missy's biology teacher suggests that the class comes up with a sort of hoax, it leads Missy to a brilliant idea. She and Claire will get in on the morning announcements (which are done on TV for the whole school to see) and "pretend" that Missy has just found her long-lost identical twin, Claire. Of course, Claire doesn't like the idea, but she ends up going along with it. Well, it's so believable to everyone it soon ends up on YouTube for the whole world to see.
Genevieve Candler goes to a completely different school and knows nothing about the video until her friend mentions it. He is so anxious for her to see it that she immediately does. A girl pops up on the screen. "That's me," Genevieve thinks. Then another girl appears and Genevieve has the same thought yet again. These girls are identical to her - but how?
This book was incredible. From the very first page, I was hooked. I couldn't fathom the thought that cousins could even think about being identical twins, and then a third identical girl was introduced! The story jumps around from Missy to Claire to Genevieve and even to the three sets of parents that are involved. What really kept me hooked was not knowing who was going to be talking next and what those person's thoughts were going to be.
Caroline B. Cooney has such a way with words and comes up with such great stories. No wonder she has written so many books! I would highly suggest picking up a copy of THREE BLACK SWANS. Around halfway through the book I could start to figure out what was going to happen next, but that didn't make the story any less exciting at all, and to me that is what made the tale so amazing.
"Black Swans: events that are hugely important, rare, and unpredictable, and explainable only after the fact."
One day, Missy Vianello hears someone on the radio talking about babies, and she starts to wonder about her family. Missy and her cousin, Claire Linnehan, have been best friends since they were little. They choose the same type of clothing most of the time, and they can even finish each other's sentences. It's so weird to Missy that she has so many questions she wants to ask her parents, but she's afraid to ask. Not that anything could be possible anyway, since Claire is eight weeks older and Missy was always so much smaller than Claire up until a year or so ago.
When Missy's biology teacher suggests that the class comes up with a sort of hoax, it leads Missy to a brilliant idea. She and Claire will get in on the morning announcements (which are done on TV for the whole school to see) and "pretend" that Missy has just found her long-lost identical twin, Claire. Of course, Claire doesn't like the idea, but she ends up going along with it. Well, it's so believable to everyone it soon ends up on YouTube for the whole world to see.
Genevieve Candler goes to a completely different school and knows nothing about the video until her friend mentions it. He is so anxious for her to see it that she immediately does. A girl pops up on the screen. "That's me," Genevieve thinks. Then another girl appears and Genevieve has the same thought yet again. These girls are identical to her - but how?
This book was incredible. From the very first page, I was hooked. I couldn't fathom the thought that cousins could even think about being identical twins, and then a third identical girl was introduced! The story jumps around from Missy to Claire to Genevieve and even to the three sets of parents that are involved. What really kept me hooked was not knowing who was going to be talking next and what those person's thoughts were going to be.
Caroline B. Cooney has such a way with words and comes up with such great stories. No wonder she has written so many books! I would highly suggest picking up a copy of THREE BLACK SWANS. Around halfway through the book I could start to figure out what was going to happen next, but that didn't make the story any less exciting at all, and to me that is what made the tale so amazing.
