Gifted and magical identical twins Jenna and Jessica Tipple live in a city where all the other twins have disappeared after a strange dark figure took them. The same dark figure came for them one night but they were protected by their older sister Caitlyn who was taken instead and has been missing ever since.

When their Aunt and Uncle get into trouble for using magic they turn at the twins home and tell their parents they need to look after their spoilt daughter whilst they take refuge in Egypt. They also inform the twin’s parents that they have enrolled them all at a new school as the twin’s current school wasn’t good enough for their daughter.

The headmistress, Miss Snippings, at the new school Chumsworth, isn’t impressed to see the twins. She doesn’t like twins. She then announces that this year’s end of term play will be about the Salem Witch Trials. The girls know they are in trouble, even more so when they find a picture in a book about the trials which looks frightening like their headmistress. Who is she really and what does she want with the girls?

The Tipple Twins and the Gift is a wonderful middle-grade book about a town in which twins are going missing. The Tipples are a magical family but magic is frowned upon and anyone caught doing it will be harshly punished. The girl’s magic comes when they lose control of their emotions.

The book opens with the family moving into a new home that people don’t live in for very long, that is because it is haunted by the ghost of a young boy who they call Boo. I would have loved to have learned more about Boo and his past life. I also would have loved to have discovered more about Caitlyn as she is there at the beginning and then we move forward in time and are told that she has been taken by the dark figure. What is left of her is posters throughout the town about her disappearance.

The book features a lot of factual information on the Salem Witch Trials and the women accused of being witches. I love how the factual information has been slid into the storyline and felt relevant to the plot not just an added extra.

The book is a quick read and would be perfect for children at Halloween. It isn’t really a scary book as such but the atmosphere is there and there is an underlying foreboding feeling throughout.

What did you think of The Tipple Twins and the Gift? Share your thoughts in the comment section below!