Todd and Amy Davidson may be twins, but they’re complete
opposites – Todd is organized and is the family “engineer,”
while Amy is outgoing and has been dubbed the “poet.” So it
would seem that for a fifth-grade economics project, Todd
would come up with a master invention, and Amy would have
a blast with her best friends as partners. To their surprise, Todd
can’t think of a single idea, and Amy gets stuck working with
the class crybaby. Then Todd begins writing poetry . . . But this
is nothing compared to the switch their parents have made.
Their father has been unemployed for months and their mother
has started to work at a crafts store. Now there’s never enough
food in the house, everybody is always on edge, and when
Amy’s friends come over after school, they find Mr. Davidson,
uncombed and unshaven, in his ratty old bathrobe. Will life
ever return to normal?
With chapters that alternate between Todd’s and Amy’s points
of view, this novel is a realistic and sometimes funny portrayal
of a family adapting to changing roles.