From Publishers Weekly
For their first collaboration, Spinner (coauthor of Aliens for Breakfast) and Bisson (Pirates of the Universe) concoct a sluggishly paced tale centering on twins Tessa and Tod, who happen upon "Gemini Jack's U Rent All" at the Middle Valley Mall. When the two hold hands and walk backward, the store materializes "at the end of a narrow corridor they hadn't seen before." Inside, a man with too-smooth skin and too many fingers knows what they have come to the mall to buy--baking pans for their grandmother--and offers to rent them to the youngsters. Well before the siblings catch on, the authors let readers in on Jack's alien identity and mission on earth, which entails saving his planet by taking a DNA sample from entirely ruthless earthling twins. Gemini Jack also lets Tessa borrow a pink "electronic pet," which the following day is stolen--along with other students' e-pets--from the twins' school. Tessa uses another gadget on loan from Jack to track down the culprits--a set of twins nasty enough to fulfill Jack's needs. Occasional funny moments surface in this convoluted caper, yet extraneous detail and an obvious conclusion considerably weaken its punch. Ages 8-12. (Feb.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 3-5-Nine-year-old twins Tessa and Tod think the guy who runs Gemini Jack's U Rent All at the local megamall is so weird, he could be an alien. It turns out they're right: Gemini Jack is on a mission to collect DNA from a pair of nasty human twins and use it to inoculate the residents of his home planet against their own niceness. This contemporary light comedy is successful in places. In the funniest running joke of the book, Jack gives the twins an electronic pet that beeps whenever anyone within earshot tells a lie, showing Tessa and Tod that adults tell whoppers right along with kids. However, the plot is hampered by inconsistencies in pacing and structure, and in small but crucial details. The authors devote many pages early in the book to the twins' hippie grandparents and their opposition to malls; these sections read like foreshadowing but turn out to be irrelevant to the plot. More jarring are contradictions about the nature of Jack's home, sometimes mentioned in the singular as "our planet" and sometimes in the plural as the "the twin planets Gemini." While there are some amusing moments here, the story seems more like a setup for a sequel than a complete entity.
Beth Wright, Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, VT Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
