"The Twin in the Tavern" by Barbara Brooks Wallace

This is a library book I picked out for my kids. We have renewed it several times and no one seemed interested in reading it, but I just couldn't let it go back to the library without reading it myself. Since we've had it more than a month I can't remember exactly why I picked it out; certainly not because of the cover, which isn't very inviting. I am not sure if I thought I recognized the author's name, or if at the time I realized what other books she had written. I know if I had opened the book up and seen on one of the first few pages that Wallace also wrote Peppermints in the Parlor, that would have sealed the deal right there and I would have checked this book out from the library no matter what.

I read Peppermints in the Parlor when I was little and it was deliciously frightening. So much so, that I purchased a copy for myself several years back. Reading it as an adult wasn't quite the same--not nearly as scary--but it was still a fun read. The Twin in the Tavern, though a very different story, had the same elements of frightened children under the thumb of cruel, bullying adults, and if I'd known of this book as a child I bet it would have had just the same effect on me, and I would have enjoyed it just as much.