We don't really face ourselves and ask ourselves the hard questions when we stand with others. He tells the story of how hard it is to be yourself and to simultaneously fit into or belong to a group. Jerry Spinelli has an empathy for kids that reaches as deeply as is humanly possible.

He's Ernie and he's just a kid like anyone else. Making fun of this Super Goober becomes a sport with them and takes on the power of being glue that holds the group together. actually they decide they've found a Super Goober. a kid they think is ultra deserving of ridicule and ostracism. Lily is lost until her Poppy tells her she needs a Lily-life she needs to stand on her own. He easily makes friends with three guys and becomes part of the Death Ray gang. Puberty is setting in and it's time for the twins to separate and find their individual paths. Jake and Lily are about to celebrate their eleventh birthday but this year their parents decide they are too old to share a bedroom any more. The two siblings tell their story in alternating voices. Their shared goombla is a gift, an extra sense, that gives them the ability to read each other's thoughts, know each other's hide and seek spot and sense each other's distress in a tense moment.

This is the story of Jake and Lily, twins, who share an intense connection they call goombla. Whether you're twins separated by eleven minutes at birth or goobers and cool guys, separated by how you're perceived socially, we are all connected.

Jake and Lily by Jerry Spinelli