One: WINNER OF THE CARNEGIE MEDAL 2016

By Author / Illustrator

Sarah Crossan

Genre

Friends and family

Age range(s)

11+

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

ISBN

9781526614858

Format

Paperback / softback

Published

19-08-2021

Synopsis

'Here we are. And we are living. Isn't that amazing? How we manage to be here at all.' Grace and Tippi don't like being stared and sneered at, but they're used to it. They're conjoined twins - united in blood and bone.

What they want is to be looked at in turn, like they truly are two people. They want real friends. And what about love? But a heart-wrenching decision lies ahead for Tippi and Grace. One that could change their lives more than they ever asked for...

This moving and beautifully crafted novel about identity, sisterhood and love ultimately asks one question: what does it mean to want and have a soulmate?

'Broke my heart and mended it' - Cecilia Ahern. 'It will shake up preconceptions and move readers to tears' - Sunday Times Book of the Week'Truly remarkable' - Irish Times. Winner of the YA Book Prize; Winner of the CILIP Carnegie Medal; Winner of the CLIPPA Poetry Award.

Experience every emotion with the finest verse novelist of our generation...Don't miss Sarah Crossan's other irresistibly page-turning books Moonrise, Toffee, Apple and Rain, and The Weight of Water.

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Reviews

Grace and Tippi are conjoined twins, something most people would dread. Living in America, they have been home educated by tutors and with that and hospital fees, finances are stretched. When their Father loses his job because of health issues, their Mother refuses to stop the counselling, so it is the schooling that has to change. They are bound to be stared at and treated differently by those around them or, as Sarah Crossan writes, 'thrown into a ring of lions / without a weapon'.

Grace is the worrier, the least confident. That's usual in any sibling relationship and Crossan manages to demonstrate normality among everything that is different. She builds up each twin as a separate character with different feelings, although they always know what one another is experiencing even if they won't readily admit it. She describes the everyday life of school and the problems it raises for the twins. She also describes home life which isn't perfect for any of the family.

They find real friends and Tippi's confidence and Grace's worries surface. So does another dilemma, one which has no right nor wrong answer. The doctors think they've got it sorted, but they cannot predict everything.

This moving novel about identity and love is written in free verse yet manages to convey so much in so few words. This is a situation which only a handful of people will ever find themselves experiencing, yet it is one in which the reader is so fully immersed because of the powerful writing. Crossan has said that it could only ever have one ending, and I fully see that, yet it was still shocking to get there.

448 pages / Ages 11-15 years / Reviewed by Dawn Woods, librarian