The Tapper Twins Go to War (With Each Other)

frankybaby - What's wrong with a little pranking among siblings? In this case - everything. It all started with a toaster cake and a huge misunderstanding - soon, both Claudia and Reese wanted serious revenge on each other. What started as a petty prank war soon escalated with something bigger - with Claudia desperate to publicly humiliate Reese. All her attempts fail because, unlike any human being, Reese doesn't care about being humiliated. On the other hand, Reese is desperate for a win - so he enlists his "evil" friend Xander to help. He overhears Claudia singing a horrible, falsetto song about Jens, who Claudia has a crush on, and Reese and Xander upload it to ClickChat (the social media in this book.) Soon, Claudia becomes cyber-bullied, horrified, humiliated, embarrassed, and really, just wants to kill Reese and Xander. She already knows humiliation doesn't work.. so what does? She soon works her way to the answer - MetaWorld (pretty much the same as Minecraft), which Reese and Xander play all hours of the day (when they're not playing soccer). She concocts a brilliant plan to destroy Xander and Reese's huge empire on MetaWorld (with the help of the admin of MetaWorld, Akash) and ultimately kills Reese and Xander in every deathmatch, kills all their soldiers, destroys their huge castles, and basically demolishes their empires. But Claudia doesn't feel good or satisfied when she's doing all this - she feels pretty horrible.. especially when Reese cries and wails and screams at how "InvisibleDeath" (her avatar on MetaWorld, but Reese doesn't know Claudia is InvisibleDeath. He doesn't even know she plays MetaWorld) is a horrible, gruesome person. Revenge was what she wanted in the first place, right? And she got it.. right? So is Claudia doing the right thing - is revenge really the answer to ending this war? Read this AMAZING book to find out! Claudia, as the "author" of this book, has compiled an astonishing amount of interviews from allies, enemies, and combatants alike. The result is an "oral" history told from many, many points of view complete with text messages, photographs, gaming chat logs, and emails. Like any historian, Claudia decides to use resources for historical comparisons (in this case that resource is Wikipedia). She compares the events of the war with events that happened in actual wars (ex. World War II) Also, she compares the people involved with people from actual wars (Xander is Hitler!) There are a lot of hilarious things but you will see realistic elements, like how Claudia interacts with her brother and schoolmates, how there is cyberbullying and how there are social media (like MetaWorld for Minecraft and ClickChat which is MySpace, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) Geoff Rodkey (the "real" author) uses a light, funny tone that navigates the ups and downs of siblings and middle school life. This book will probably attract readers who liked "Charlie Joe Jackson", "Origami Yoda", and "Jake & Lily." I heard this will be a series - I'm actually extremely excited and glad to hear this will not end the first book.. The Tapper Twins have material that could keep an author busy for a while and this book has a lot of potential! So I can't wait for the Tapper Twins Tear Up New York (the next book!) I rate this five stars, hands down, and I hope many readers will enjoy this book as much as I did!

Starred review from February 2, 2015
Even the trigger for this “war” between two New York City twins is up for debate, because 12-year-olds Claudia and Reese Tapper can’t agree on anything. But after Reese accuses Claudia of farting in the crowded sixth-grade cafeteria for all to hear, including Claudia’s (shh, don’t tell) crush, she is out for revenge. After a few amusing false starts, such as hiding a dead fish in Reese’s backpack (he doesn’t really notice the smell), Claudia realizes that she needs to hit Reese where it hurts: the empire he’s built in his beloved, Minecraft-esque online game. Constructed through photos, text messages, interviews transcripts, screenshots, and more, the book is conceived as an oral history, and the documentary format allows the Tapper twins, their parents, friends, and private-school setting to spring to life. Rodkey (the Chronicles of Egg series) clearly knows his audience, as well as the love that (usually) hides underneath sibling warfare. The clear-cut winners are readers of this uproarious series opener, which is packed with both laugh-out-loud moments and heart. Ages 8–12. Agent: Josh Getzler, Hannigan Salky Getzler.

January 1, 2015
An escalating sibling spat delivers "a buttload of life lessons" along with tears, terrible smells, a dorky mohawk and massive numbers of video game casualties.Following a one-sided introduction-"We are, unfortunately, twins. I am twelve years old. Reese is six"-sniffy Claudia and her brother offer somewhat different versions of how it begins: either at breakfast, when she eats his toaster pastry, or later, in the lunchroom of their upper East Side school, when he loudly dubs her "Princess Farts-A-Lot." Be that as it may, the getback pranks proceed from a rotting fish in Reese's backpack to a mortifying video posted on the local social network. They nearly get out of hand after Claudia's fixation on destroying the properties that Reese and an obnoxious friend have laboriously built in digital MetaWorld morphs into cyberbullying. Along the way, both sibs enlist allies, do things they come to regret and discover that revenge somehow isn't as satisfying as it should be. The narrative is framed as a transcript dictated by Claudia and other participants, with text-message exchanges between clueless parents as well as photos, screen shots and frequent interjections from Reese pasted in. Though Claudia's is the main voice, for all his immaturity, Reese comes off as the more likable, less-driven of the duo. This frothy family contretemps ends on a note of sincere reconciliation (once Reese's hair grows back out, anyway)-that's presumably upended in time for the sequel. (Fiction. 10-12)

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January 1, 2015

Gr 4-6-What's wrong with a little pranking among siblings? Things couldn't possibly escalate, could they? Twelve-year-old twins Claudia and Reese Tapper live on the Upper West Side of New York City with their rather clueless, professional parents and a nice but also clueless nanny. In an effort to examine the events that led up to a full-scale war between the twins, Claudia decides to interview the combatants as well as a variety of allies and enemies, bystanders, and parents. The result is this "oral" history transcript complete with text messages, photographs, emails, and gaming chat logs. Like any self-respecting millennial, Claudia consults Wikipedia about war and sees parallels between World War I and her battles with Reese. And to think it all started with a misappropriated toaster cake. While there is plenty of hilarity, readers will experience many little pings of recognition; the dynamics between siblings and schoolmates rings true. Rodkey keeps the action moving and relatively light while maintaining a laser-beamlike eye on the complicated bond of twins, navigating the minefield that is middle school without judgment or didacticism. Fragile egos, misunderstandings, and actions that seemed like a good idea at the time are laid out in an engaging format that will be appealing to tween digital natives and fans of "Origami Yoda" (Abrams) and "Charlie Joe Jackson" (Roaring Brook). A fine beginning to a funny, new middle grade series.-Brenda Kahn, Tenakill Middle School, Closter, NJ

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2015
Grades 4-7 It started with words. Or maybe with the missing toaster pastry. But when Reese Tapper called his twin sister, Claudia, Princess Farts-a-Lot in front of the whole sixth grade, the war was on. Through oral-history interviews, text messages, e-mails, chat-room comments, photographs, and margin notes, Claudia documents the history of the Tapper twins' war. The twins live in a New York City apartment, their busy parents come across as somewhat clueless, and their after-school sitter is not effective in the substitute parenting department. The escalation from a rotting fish in Reese's book bag to social catastrophe and digital annihilation is inexorableand quite believable. Entertained readers may just get the message, with Claudia concluding, There are definitely a lot of very important lessons to be learned from The War. Indeed, she discovers that war messes with your head, and she ends up regretting the whole thing. Thanks to the inclusion of various points of view, Claudia's reasonably balanced narrative offers plenty of humorous insight, and occasional doodles and photos keep it peppy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)