Twin Cities: (A Graphic Novel)

by Jose Pimienta

Overview

FOUR STARRED REVIEWS • A critically acclaimed graphic novel with rave reviews about this timely story featuring middle school twins living on the Mexico-US border and trying to discover exactly who they are – together or apart.

“Transcendentally good.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Being twins means having a best friend forever . . . But when one goes to middle school in Mexico and the other across the border in California, can that bond withstand the distance? Luis Fernando is staying local in Mexicali, Mexico, while Luisa Teresa crosses the border every day so she can go to a private school in Calexico, California. As they try to embrace new experiences close to and far from home, the twins hit obstacles: like making new friends and navigating school pressure without the other one for support. Fernando and Teresa finally have the chance to stand on their . . . isn’t that what the always wanted?

A unique and timely story about siblings, middle school, and peer pressure from rising star Jose Pimienta, Twin Cities is at once a relatable contemporary story and much-needed window into an experience so many kids can relate to but has rarely been seen in children’s graphic novels.

"From start to finish, Twin Cities is a superbly crafted work of art and emotion that marks Pimienta as a creator to watch." —BookPage, starred review

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593180624
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	07/19/2022
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	391,877
Product dimensions:	5.56(w) x 8.06(h) x 0.77(d)
Lexile:	GN510L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Jose Pimiento was raised in Mexicali, Baja California and now resides in Los Angeles, CA where they work on comics and storyboards for animation and film. Suncatcher was their debut author/illustrator graphic novel. Twin Cities is their first middle-grade graphic novel. In their stories, they focus on the importance of Latinx culture and the experience of growing up on the border.

Editorial Reviews

★ 05/30/2022

Pimienta’s (Suncatcher) profound graphic novel follows Mexican twins Teresa and Fer’s evolving relationship while attending different schools in separate cities, divided by the U.S.-Mexico border. Luis Fernando and Luisa Teresa Sosa, known collectively as the Lu-Lus, have always been inseparable. That is, until Teresa—seeking to broaden her horizons and differentiate herself from her brother—decides to commute to middle school across the border in Calexico, Calif. Fer, who stays in their Mexicali, Mexico, hometown, feels lost without her until he befriends weed-selling older kid Alex, who despises American hegemony. Brilliantly alternating panels parallel the twins’ vastly different school experiences and home lives. Their opposing paths come to a head after a narrowly avoided crisis at a border checkpoint causes a blowout argument between the siblings. Through clear and honest communication, Teresa and Fer embrace their commonalities and lean on each other for support. Living on both sides is relatively feasible in this ostensibly 1990s set narrative, but the story foreshadows contemporary society’s increased tensions. Pimienta uses empathetic dialogue to thoughtfully explore the twins’ conflicting relationships with their parents and their dramatically shifting siblinghood. Brightly colored, intricately detailed panoramas and montages convey one family’s experience living in a vivacious border community that is richer for its multitude of influences. An afterword about the author’s experience growing up on both sides of the border concludes. Ages 8–12. Agent: Elizabeth Bennett, Transatlantic Literary. (July)

Publishers Weekly

★ "From start to finish, Twin Cities is a superbly crafted work of art and emotion that marks Pimienta as a creator to watch." —BookPage, starred review

★ "Transcendently good." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

★ "Brightly colored, intricately detailed panoramas and montages convey one family’s experience living in a vivacious border community that is richer for its multitude of influences." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

★ "This graphic novel explores the relationship between young teenage twins as they traverse physical, personal, and cultural borders." —The Horn Book, starred review

From the Publisher

08/19/2022

Gr 6 Up—Luis Fernando and Luisa Teresa have been known as the Lu-Lu twins for their whole lives, but as the two prepare to enter middle school, Teresa wants her own identity apart from her brother. Names are only the beginning of the changes they will experience in seventh grade: new rooms, new friends, and new schools follow. Growing up in a border town in Mexicali, Mexico, in the 1990s, the twins now attend schools on opposite sides of the border. Teresa struggles to keep up with the homework, commute, and new friendships. Meanwhile, Fernando finds himself figuring out what it means to be Mexican while becoming friends with an older student who isn't the best influence. Pimienta portrays realistic sibling relationships and family dynamics. Drug use and peer pressure feature prominently as catalysts for conflict in the story. The hand-drawn, full-color illustrations complement the text, drive the story's emotion, and provide richness to the setting. An author's note offers connections to Pimienta's lived experiences and the decision to mix English and Spanish. VERDICT For fans of Alexis Castellanos's Isla to Island and Maggie Edkins Willis's Smaller Sister, this look at changing relationships and connection to identity and culture is highly recommended for middle and high school collections.—Monisha Blair

School Library Journal

★ 2022-04-13
Twelve-year-old twins forge individual paths—and begin to lead diverging lives—at separate schools along the Calexico-Mexicali border.

Sixth grade is officially over. For Teresa and Fernando, summer vacation zips by in a series of frolics and chores, perhaps their last season as an inseparable pair. Then the first day of seventh grade arrives. Teresa prepares herself early to cross the border into Calexico to attend an American middle school; Fernando remains behind in Mexicali to continue school in their town. Different school beginnings greet each sibling. Without his sister (and two best friends, who are at Teresa’s school), Fernando spends his time alone, counting down the minutes until school ends. Teresa, meanwhile, finds new peers and seems right at home in her new American school. Those initial steps prove only temporary. In an ingenious use of panel sets to separate each twin’s journey on the page, Pimienta masterfully builds the tension and pressure between Fernando and Teresa, together at home and apart at school. Wandering off one day, Fernando befriends an older student who gradually exerts his considerable influence and introduces him to weed. High academic stress and lofty parental expectations chisel away at Teresa, and her initial enthusiasm falters slightly under the weight of her new reality. Sibling squabbles and confrontations—captured in all their raw nuance thanks to the author’s deft writing and scrappy artwork—build to a wonderful breakthrough point.

Transcendently good. (author’s note, sketches, map, supplemental note) (Graphic fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews