Let’s say John was pragmatic and played the drums, and Abigail was theoretical and solved cryptic crosswords. Now suppose their father was a brilliant, if sometimes confused, inventor. And suppose that another set of twins—adults—named Dean D. Dean and Dan D. Dean, kidnapped the Templeton twins and their ridiculous dog in order to get their father to turn over one of his genius (sort of) inventions. Yes, I said kidnapped. Wouldn’t it be fun to read about that? Oh, please. It would so. (from the book jacket) Twins Abigail and John Templeton have recently lost their mother, and their father, a famous inventor is very distracted since her death. When they move to a new college town for their father’s job, they get a nanny and they get kidnapped. Fortunately the Templeton Twins have lots of ideas for how to get out of sticky situations. Readers who enjoyed the snarky narrator in a Series of Unfortunate Events or The Name of this Book is Secret will enjoy this first entry in the series.
ISBN: 9780811866798 227 pages. Middle grades 3-6.
Recommended by: Alice Cyphers, Librarian, Pennsylvania USA
