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Multiples: Twins, Triplets, and More
Recognize National Multiple Birth Awareness Month with this list of books involving twins, triplets, and other multiples.
Sometimes an expected baby turns out not to be alone! About 3% of babies born in the United States are born as multiples, meaning that there are two, three, or even more babies as part of the same pregnancy. Family and sibling dynamics can be fraught and fascinating, and during April, which is National Multiple Birth Awareness Month, our Recommended Reads list is focusing on stories and information about the experiences of twins, triplets, and other multiples, or what it’s like to grow up alongside them.
Digital book (DB, DBC, DBG, DBF), braille (BR, BRG), and large print (LT) copies of these titles are available from the Perkins Library or the Worcester Talking Book Library. Please contact the library to order any of these books.
Prepared by Leah Ellenbogen
Children’s Resource and Service Librarian
Perkins Library
And Then There Was One
by Patricia Gussin
DB 93169, LT 28418, Available as BARD Download
Two of the nine-year-old triplet daughters of Scott and Katie Monroe vanish while attending a movie at a Detroit mall. Although investigators look hard at people psychiatrist Katie has testified against in child abuse cases, days go by without a clue. Strong language, explicit descriptions of sex, and some violence. 2010.
Castles in Their Bones
by Laura Sebastian
DB 107334, Available as BARD Download
Sixteen-year-old triplets Princesses Sophronia, Daphne, and Beatriz, each with her own secret skill and wish, begin arranged marriages to princes of neighboring nations to fulfill their mother’s intention to reign over the continent. For senior high and older readers. 2022.
Don’t Let Go
by Harlan Coben
DB 89453, LT 22847 DB available as BARD Download
Fifteen years ago, high school senior Nap Dumas’s twin brother, Leo, and Leo’s girlfriend were mysteriously killed by a train, and Nap’s girlfriend, Maura, vanished. Now a detective, Nap learns that Maura’s fingerprints were just found at another fellow graduate’s murder scene. Violence, some strong language, and some descriptions of sex. 2017.
A Double Dose of Love
by Kathleen Fuller
DB 108017, Available as BARD Download
A newspaper ad sends Darla King to the Amish community of Birch Creek to find a husband, with her identical twin Amanda following behind to drag her home. Darla sets her sights on Zeke Bontrager, but he has his hands full running a horse farm with his twin brother Zeb. 2021.
Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery
by Scott Kelly
DB 89525, BRG 4195, LT 23112, Available as BARD Download
Astronaut and American record-holder for most consecutive days in space examines his life and career. Discusses growing up with identical twin brother—and fellow astronaut—Mark, challenges he faced to become an astronaut, and the physical and emotional impacts of long-term space flight. 2017.
A Face for Picasso: Coming of Age with Crouzon Syndrome
by Ariel Henley
DB 106407, BR 24036, Available as BARD Download
Ariel Henley recounts her own and her twin sister’s experience living with Crouzon syndrome, a rare condition where the bones in the head fuse prematurely. Henley discusses the surgeries, the strength and resilience needed while dealing with the emotional toll of navigating life with a facial disfigurement. For senior high and older readers. 2021.
False Hearts
by Laura Lam
DB 85074, Available as BARD Download
Conjoined twin sisters escape life in a cult when their shared heart begins to fail. They are surgically separated and receive new artificial hearts. A decade later, when sister Tila is arrested on murder charges, Taema goes undercover as Tila to investigate the crime. 2016.
The Grammarians
by Cathleen Schine
DB 96402, LT 27167, Available as BARD Download
Identical twins Laurel and Daphne Wolfe are obsessed with words. As toddlers, they speak in a secret “twin” language. As adults in 1980s Manhattan, their shared love begins to tear them apart until their feud reaches its apex in a war over the family-heirloom dictionary. 2019.
High School
by Sara Quin and Tegan Quin
DB 97119, Available as BARD Download
The authors, identical twin sisters, perform together as the indie rock group Tegan and Sara. From first loves to first songs, they share stories of their high school years in Calgary, Alberta, and the formative experiences that led to musical success and iconic status in the LGBT community. 2019.
Identical
by Scott Turow
DB 77644, BR 20317, Available as BARD Download
As state senator Paul Gianis runs for mayor, his identical twin Cass is released after serving twenty-five years for murdering Cass’s girlfriend Dita. But Dita’s brother—who is convinced Paul was involved—has private detectives reinvestigate the case. Strong language, some violence, and some descriptions of sex. Bestseller. 2013.
The Latecomer
by Jean Hanff Korelitz
DB 108806, LT 31874, Available as BARD Download
Follows the story of the wealthy, New York City-based Oppenheimer family, from the first meeting of parents Salo and Johanna, under tragic circumstances, to their triplets born during the early days of IVF. When her children leave for college, Johanna, faced with being truly alone, makes the decision to have a fourth child using a leftover embryo from the triplets’ in vitro genesis. 2022.
Magic for Liars
by Sarah Gailey
DB 95390, BR 22926, LT 27172, Available as BARD Download
A gruesome murder is discovered at the Osthorne Academy for Young Mages, where private investigator Ivy Gamble’s estranged twin sister teaches. Although she has no magic herself, Ivy is pulled into the world of untold power and dangerous secrets. Violence and strong language. 2019.
Mister X
by John Lutz
DB 80330, Available as BARD Download
Five years ago, a killer claimed the lives of six women. Ex-homicide detective Frank Quinn is shocked to see one of the dead women in his office. Actually, she’s the identical twin of the last victim, and she wants Quinn to find her sister’s murderer. 2010.
Multiples Illuminated: A Collection of Stories and Advice from Parents of Twins, Triplets and More
by Alison Lee and Megan Woolsey
DB 88881, Available as BARD Download
A guide for those expecting twins, triplets, or any other number of multiples. Includes anecdotes and advice on topics such as labor and delivery, time in the NICU, breastfeeding multiples, surviving the infant and toddler years, and more. Information comes both from families with multiples and from experts. 2016.
One Two Three
by Laurie Frankel
DB 103857, LT 30874, Available as BARD Download
The Mitchell triplets were born soon after their small hometown of Bourne made news for the poisoning of the local water supply by a nearby chemical plant. Now sixteen, the sisters navigate their own challenges while the reopening of the plant brings old secrets to light. 2021.
Once There Were Wolves
by Charlotte McConaghy
DB 104524, BR 23908, LT 30695, Available as BARD Download
Inti Flynn arrives in Scotland with her twin sister, Aggie, to lead a team of biologists reintroducing fourteen gray wolves into the remote Highlands. She hopes to heal not only the dying landscape, but also Aggie, who is traumatized by the secrets that drove them out of Alaska. Violence and strong language. 2021.
Our Woman in Moscow
by Beatriz Williams
DB 103711, LT 30000, Available as BARD Download
In 1948, Iris Digby vanished from London with her American diplomat husband and their two children. Four years later, Iris’s twin sister Ruth receives a postcard. Within days, Ruth is on her way to Moscow, posing as the wife of a counterintelligence agent to extract the Digbys from behind the Iron Curtain. 2021.
Saucy
by Cynthia Kadohata
DB 101350, Available as BARD Download
When eleven-year-old Becca, a quadruplet, finds a sick piglet on the side of the road, her life is changed forever. For grades 3-6. 2020.
Somebody Like You
by Beth K. Vogt
DB 79500, Available as BARD Download
Haley’s marriage to Sam, an army medic, ended tragically when he was killed in Afghanistan. Now a pregnant widow, Haley arrives home one evening to find what appears to be Sam on her porch. But it is his identical twin Stephen—and Sam had never mentioned his existence. 2014.
Summer at the Cape
by RaeAnne Thayne
DB 108133, LT 31755, Available as BARD Download
As the older sibling to identical twins Violet and Lily, Cami Porter was always the odd sister out. The divide grew even wider when their parents split up—while the twins stayed in Cape Sanctuary with their free-spirited mother, Rosemary, fourteen-year-old Cami moved to LA with her attorney father. Nearly twenty years later, when Cami gets the terrible news that Lily has drowned saving a child’s life, her mother begs her to return home to help untangle the complicated estate issues her sister left behind. 2022.
Three Dark Crowns
by Kendare Blake
DB 86706, Available as BARD Download
Triplets Mirabella, Katharine, and Arsinoe, equal heirs to the crown, possess unique magical abilities, but only one has a chance of becoming the crowned queen. Once they turn sixteen, the sisters must battle each other for the throne. For senior high and older readers. 2016.
Twin Tales: The Magic and the Mystery of Multiple Birth
by Donna Jackson Kallner
DB 53571, Available as BARD Download
Explores the topic of twins. Discusses why and how they are born, twin telepathy, identical and fraternal twins, conjoined twins, and twins raised apart. Includes many personal stories. For grades 4-7. 2001.
An Unlikely Journey: Waking Up from My American Dream
by Julián Castro
DB 96398, LT 24858, Available as BARD Download
Former Obama cabinet member and San Antonio, Texas, mayor discusses growing up in poverty, the role of his mother in his eventual success, and both his and his twin brother’s political careers. 2018.
The Vanishing Half
by Brit Bennett
DB 99791, BR 23212, LT 28474, Available as BARD Download
Desiree Vignes and her daughter return home to Louisiana in 1968, fourteen years after Desiree and her identical twin sister Stella ran away as teens. The sisters ended up on different paths, and as Desiree struggles with the racial tensions of her hometown, Stella has lived her life passing as white. Violence, strong language, and some descriptions of sex. Bestseller. 2020.
