From School Library Journal
Grade 4-6-- If one set of twins is double trouble, then two sets of twins in one family is double trouble squared, especially when the twins in question have the power to communicate with oneother telepathically. The Starbuck family includes 12-year-old fraternal twins July Burton and Liberty Bell; their younger mirror image siblings, Charlotte and Amalie; the children's mother, herself a twin; her obnoxious sister, Honey; and, lastly, father Putnam Starbuck, who has just become an undersecretary at the U. S. Embassy in London. This change of jobs and venue takes the twins and their teacher Zanny the Nanny (oh, these names!) to the native turf of their hero, Sherlock Holmes, and a rendezvous with a mysterious spirit voice that has been invading the twins' telepathic turf. If all of this sounds complicated, it is; in fact, so busy is the author with introducing her cornucopia of characters and their eccentricities that it takes her 154 pages to orchestrate the pivotal encounter that will engage the plot. Granted this is the first of a proposed series and, accordingly, a good deal of background information needs to be imparted. But the fundamental problem remains that there are simply too many characters, both human and . . . otherwise (this is a ghost story of sorts, after all). One hopes that future stories will focus more on plot and less on the too literary complexities of characterization. Otherwise the terms ``Starbuck Family'' and ``adventure'' will join the ranks of such treasured oxymorons as ``jumbo shrimp.'' --Michael Cart, Beverly Hills Public Library
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0152241272/ref=cm_rdp_product
Grade 4-6-- If one set of twins is double trouble, then two sets of twins in one family is double trouble squared, especially when the twins in question have the power to communicate with oneother telepathically. The Starbuck family includes 12-year-old fraternal twins July Burton and Liberty Bell; their younger mirror image siblings, Charlotte and Amalie; the children's mother, herself a twin; her obnoxious sister, Honey; and, lastly, father Putnam Starbuck, who has just become an undersecretary at the U. S. Embassy in London. This change of jobs and venue takes the twins and their teacher Zanny the Nanny (oh, these names!) to the native turf of their hero, Sherlock Holmes, and a rendezvous with a mysterious spirit voice that has been invading the twins' telepathic turf. If all of this sounds complicated, it is; in fact, so busy is the author with introducing her cornucopia of characters and their eccentricities that it takes her 154 pages to orchestrate the pivotal encounter that will engage the plot. Granted this is the first of a proposed series and, accordingly, a good deal of background information needs to be imparted. But the fundamental problem remains that there are simply too many characters, both human and . . . otherwise (this is a ghost story of sorts, after all). One hopes that future stories will focus more on plot and less on the too literary complexities of characterization. Otherwise the terms ``Starbuck Family'' and ``adventure'' will join the ranks of such treasured oxymorons as ``jumbo shrimp.'' --Michael Cart, Beverly Hills Public Library
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0152241272/ref=cm_rdp_product
