THE DAREDEVILS

While forging their own identities, brother and sister twins uncover family secrets.

With names that are nods to country music icons, twins Loretta and Waylon will be starting middle school in the fall and for the first time attending separate classes. They both have plans for the summer: Movie enthusiast Loretta, perpetual protector of her smaller-sized brother, plans to toughen him up; survival-story fan Waylon wants to prove he can defend himself. The siblings narrate in alternating chapters, addressing readers directly at times, and their stories blend when they stumble upon a clearing in the woods that they name the Circle of Stones. After meeting home-schooled Louie, whose mother is deemed “crazy” by the locals, Loretta and Waylon reference Indigenous coming-of-age ceremonies and include Louie in a series of their own rituals. These are meant to honor Forest Spirits, their name for what they believe are the spirits of unspecified people who explored these woods long ago. These invented ceremonies, along with mentions of such cultural elements as dream catchers, wigwams, and counting coup, recur in the narrative in ways that evoke exoticizing stereotypes of Native peoples. While conducting these rituals, Loretta and Waylon discover family connections and begin to understand the mental health issues that trouble Louie’s mother. Additional storylines involving school bullies and first crushes converge in a trite conclusion. Main characters read as White.

Explores changes that come with the transition to middle school but is marred by stereotyping.