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Sisters #1
SPLIT SISTERS
Very different but still very close to her fourteen-year-old sister, Jan, eleven-year-old Case is shocked and dismayed to learn of their "estranged parent's" plans to separate them and fights to keep the family together.
- GenresYoung AdultChildrens
Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
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About the author
C.S. Adler
53 books22 followersC.S. (Carole) Adler moved to Tucson, Arizona, after spending most of her life in upstate New York. She was an English teacher at Niskayuna Middle School for nearly a decade. She is a passionate tennis player, grandmother, and nature lover, and has been a full-time writer since the publication of her first book,The Magic of the Glits, in 1979. That book won both the William Allen White Award and the Golden Kite Award.
Her bookThe Shell Lady’s Daughter was chosen by the A.L.A. as a best young adult book of l983. With Westie and the Tin Man won the Children’s Book Award of the Child Study Committee in l986, and that committee has commended many of Adler’s books. Split Sisters in l987 and Ghost Brother in 1991 were I.R.A. Children’s Choices selections. One Sister Too Many was on the 1991 Young Adults’ Choices list. Always and Forever Friends and Eddie’s Blue Winged Dragon were on a 1991 I.R.A. 99 Favorite Paperbacks list.
Many of her books have been on state lists and have also been published in Japan, Germany, England, Denmark, Austria, Sweden, and France.
Her bookThe Shell Lady’s Daughter was chosen by the A.L.A. as a best young adult book of l983. With Westie and the Tin Man won the Children’s Book Award of the Child Study Committee in l986, and that committee has commended many of Adler’s books. Split Sisters in l987 and Ghost Brother in 1991 were I.R.A. Children’s Choices selections. One Sister Too Many was on the 1991 Young Adults’ Choices list. Always and Forever Friends and Eddie’s Blue Winged Dragon were on a 1991 I.R.A. 99 Favorite Paperbacks list.
Many of her books have been on state lists and have also been published in Japan, Germany, England, Denmark, Austria, Sweden, and France.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 17, 2016
For the month of April, I read the book Split Sisters by C.S. Adler. Although this story line may be similar to some peoples' lives, the book genre is fiction. There are three settings in the book; New York, on Gerry's boat "The Jokester", and the family's home. Case, Jen, Mother (Marian) and Dad (Gerry). Split Sisters is about a happy family is forced to make a decision between moving to New York or staying in their town and living on a boat after the mother is proposed a job shes always wanted. Threw the choice making, the family separates and Case trys to bring the family back together by doing silly acts. I really enjoyed this book, because it kept me entertained and I couldn't put the book down, so I rated it four stars.
March 30, 2009
Grades 4+. Ambitious mother moves to city and leaves youngest sister with step-father.
March 10, 2016
This book was okay, I guess, but not something I'd want to read again.
November 8, 2017
3.5 stars
October 14, 2022
Split Sisters
Jen and Case's mother gets a promotion and wants to move to New York. Their stepfather Gerry wants to stay in Standford and pursue his dream of being a cartoonist. Mother asks Jen to come with her, but she seems undecided. Case wants no part of NY. Jen wouldn’t mind going to NY if she could attend a good computer school. Later, their mom tells them she and Gerry will do a “trial separation”. She’ll take them to NY and Gerry will stay there. If they don’t like NY they can come back and live with Gerry. All Case hears are the words “trial separation” and how they eventually lead to divorce (a word Mother likes to throw at Gerry).
Case threatens to stay with her stepfather when she finds out her mother has been looking at apartments and her mother is fine with it. Gerry asks Case to stay with him and she says yes. But then she finds out Jenn will be going with her mother and becomes upset again. Her father’s friend has offered to let him live on his boat (rent-free) so they’ll have to give up the house since it’s too expensive to keep the house and their mother’s new apartment. Case says she’s changed her mind and now wants to go live with her mother, but Gerry says she has to get used to being apart from Jenn because she’ll be going to college in three years. She tries to get Jenn to speak up but Jenn reminds her she hates the city. Case asks why their mother can’t go alone and she says she needs someone too. Case demands later to know if Jenn cares and this makes Jenn cry. Case vows to fix things.
The next day she goes to her mother and she says they can see each other on the weekends by way of subway and train. They can also call each other on the phone. Then she starts pointing out all the reasons this is the best thing (Case can stay at her school and not leave Norma, etc). Plus the apartment is small. Case even begs, but mother isn’t moved. So she tries Gerry, but he says there’s no way he can keep both her and Jenn. Then he tries to plead with her that he hasn’t been successful with careers and this is last chance. She tries to get him to get Jenn to live with them on the boat, but he points out Jenn gets sea-sick. He then tells her he needs her. Norma tells Case to think of a sickness that’s major enough to keep her parents together and they come up with poisoning herself but luckily Case realizes that even in small does they’re too dangerous.
A real estate person comes by and mother has to leave so Case exaggerates about all the bad things about the house and the neighbors. Gerry pretends he doesn’t hear a word of Case’s confession. Jenn says that if she has to she and Case can go stay with their horrible Grandmother. Case tells her grandmother later that night what their mother plans to do and she gets on her case. Case surprisingly tho doesn’t get in trouble.
Case’s next plan is to tell Norma to tell the teacher that she’s considering suicide so the teacher will tell the psychiatrist and the psychiatrist will contact her mother. But her mother isn’t buying this and neither is Jenn. They both know Case is up to something. Case comes up with a plan that she’ll make them think she swallowed a whole bottle of Tylenol and she actually has to get her stomach pumped. It’s then they realize when nothing is in her stomach that she’s faking. Gerry makes Case feel bad by trying to lay a guilt trip on her. He says the move isn’t just about the promotion. Sometimes he feels like the mom doesn’t respect him. Again he says he needs her, but she insist she loves Jenn and needs her more.
Case’s mom confesses that she married and had two kids young and then her husband died. She married Gerry even though he was younger and unambitious. He always wanted to adopt Case and Jenn (this was a concern of Norma’s mother) but she keep putting him off but she didn’t have faith in them lasting. She offers Case the choice to stay with her and Jenn, but Case now says she’ll stick with Gerry.
Jenn and Mom leave. Jenn seems happy with her new computer classes. Gerry makes a friend named Mikki that he spends more and more time with. (He’s consulting on the repair work for her brother’s boat). There’s a dock worker named Brian that becomes friends with Case and wants to date Jenn. Case finds out Jenn might not be spending the summer with her because she got accepted to computer camp. Jenn comes to visit on the boat and Case tells her about Miki. Jenn doesn’t think they should tell their mother, but Case doesn’t agree and threatens to do it. Jenn ends up bonding with Brian and Case gets jealous. She hears Jenn tell him she’ll be gone for six months and Case gets upset and runs off. Jenn later tries to appease her by saying she just won’t go.
Case learns that her mother isn’t as happy as she thinks with her new job and her boss. But she insist she’s happier in NY. Her mother asks about her father and his cartoons and says he always succeeds eventually and Case advises that she tell him that. Then she hints that “a friend” believes in him. The Mother tho already knows about Miki and doesn’t seem worried. Case eventually caves and sends Jenn a letter telling her it’s ok if she goes to camp. Mother says she took some time off and wants to spend some time on the boat, but what she doesn’t know if Miki’s been on the boat quite a lot. Not only will the mother be coming, so will the Grandmother (whose horrible). They all find out the mother quit her job. When the mother meets Miki she begins to worry and sees she has competition. Surprisingly, the Grandmother tells Miram she should have compromised then she could have kept her husband and her job. Jen leaves for camp. Case and Grandmother go away to NY to give Miiriam and Gerry time alone and they end up having fun going sightseeing. When they get back it’s the 4rth and Jenn makes a surprise visit. Mom announces she’s getting a new job in Jersey and she and Gerry are getting back to together, but Case will have to leave Norma, and they can’t get the house back. Oh well, guess you can’t have everything.
My Thoughts: At first, I really didn’t have any thoughts about this story. I am the daughter of parents whose marriage didn’t work out, but my parents didn’t “separate”. From what I remember (and it has been a LONG time so it might be a little hazy) one day my dad had just moved out.
I do have a sister and at this point in time we probably were close, but then my sister and I were always separated. She’s always lived in Maryland DC. So, I never really got as attached as Case did Jenn.
Both my grandmothers were nice and when I had to stay with them when my mother worked I didn’t have bad memories of those times. In fact, I remember my maternal grandmother’s house and the time I was there with my cousin with fondness.
So I was reading along and then I got to the part where Case said she’d use suicide as a way to keep her parents together and that kind of shocked me. Recently, I had a family member that said they were going to commit suicide and then just disappeared to another city and it had everyone just at a lost and worried out of their minds!
I never really liked the mother in this story because 1) she never quite took her husband seriously. I know from experience it’s harder in this world to make and be successful with an art career if your not in a city that is geared at creativity. 2 not only did she not take her husband seriously she didn’t take her daughter seriously. Even though she *DID* know her daughter, if your CHILD comes to you and threatens sucidie that’s not something you just brush off. Even though Case was just talking.
Neither the mother or Gerry sat her down and had a talk with her that suicide is SERIOUS! It’s not like saying “I’m gonna run away.” One of them I thought should have had at least a talk with her and said “Do you even realize what you're saying?” I certainly wouldn’t have let my child go through with a procedure that probably cost them a lot of money for NOTHING.
I don’t know what I made of the end. This might have SEEMED like a happy ending, but it wasn’t a GOOD ending! Yes, Jenn got to go to computer camp and she became less of an introvert-but really is so bad that she was?. Case and her Grandmother bonded and became a little more tolerant of each other. BUT I do not think the mother changed because she spent a week on the boat with her husband. The only reason she wanted Gerry back was because he had the attention of another woman.
Even though Miki was younger, I still thin she made the better match for Gerry because she actually BELIEVED in him and didn’t put his dreams down. *THAT’S* who the book should have ended up with him with. But I’m learning something the more I see marriage and relationships. They don’t always make sense to me (just my POV).
Rating: 5
Jen and Case's mother gets a promotion and wants to move to New York. Their stepfather Gerry wants to stay in Standford and pursue his dream of being a cartoonist. Mother asks Jen to come with her, but she seems undecided. Case wants no part of NY. Jen wouldn’t mind going to NY if she could attend a good computer school. Later, their mom tells them she and Gerry will do a “trial separation”. She’ll take them to NY and Gerry will stay there. If they don’t like NY they can come back and live with Gerry. All Case hears are the words “trial separation” and how they eventually lead to divorce (a word Mother likes to throw at Gerry).
Case threatens to stay with her stepfather when she finds out her mother has been looking at apartments and her mother is fine with it. Gerry asks Case to stay with him and she says yes. But then she finds out Jenn will be going with her mother and becomes upset again. Her father’s friend has offered to let him live on his boat (rent-free) so they’ll have to give up the house since it’s too expensive to keep the house and their mother’s new apartment. Case says she’s changed her mind and now wants to go live with her mother, but Gerry says she has to get used to being apart from Jenn because she’ll be going to college in three years. She tries to get Jenn to speak up but Jenn reminds her she hates the city. Case asks why their mother can’t go alone and she says she needs someone too. Case demands later to know if Jenn cares and this makes Jenn cry. Case vows to fix things.
The next day she goes to her mother and she says they can see each other on the weekends by way of subway and train. They can also call each other on the phone. Then she starts pointing out all the reasons this is the best thing (Case can stay at her school and not leave Norma, etc). Plus the apartment is small. Case even begs, but mother isn’t moved. So she tries Gerry, but he says there’s no way he can keep both her and Jenn. Then he tries to plead with her that he hasn’t been successful with careers and this is last chance. She tries to get him to get Jenn to live with them on the boat, but he points out Jenn gets sea-sick. He then tells her he needs her. Norma tells Case to think of a sickness that’s major enough to keep her parents together and they come up with poisoning herself but luckily Case realizes that even in small does they’re too dangerous.
A real estate person comes by and mother has to leave so Case exaggerates about all the bad things about the house and the neighbors. Gerry pretends he doesn’t hear a word of Case’s confession. Jenn says that if she has to she and Case can go stay with their horrible Grandmother. Case tells her grandmother later that night what their mother plans to do and she gets on her case. Case surprisingly tho doesn’t get in trouble.
Case’s next plan is to tell Norma to tell the teacher that she’s considering suicide so the teacher will tell the psychiatrist and the psychiatrist will contact her mother. But her mother isn’t buying this and neither is Jenn. They both know Case is up to something. Case comes up with a plan that she’ll make them think she swallowed a whole bottle of Tylenol and she actually has to get her stomach pumped. It’s then they realize when nothing is in her stomach that she’s faking. Gerry makes Case feel bad by trying to lay a guilt trip on her. He says the move isn’t just about the promotion. Sometimes he feels like the mom doesn’t respect him. Again he says he needs her, but she insist she loves Jenn and needs her more.
Case’s mom confesses that she married and had two kids young and then her husband died. She married Gerry even though he was younger and unambitious. He always wanted to adopt Case and Jenn (this was a concern of Norma’s mother) but she keep putting him off but she didn’t have faith in them lasting. She offers Case the choice to stay with her and Jenn, but Case now says she’ll stick with Gerry.
Jenn and Mom leave. Jenn seems happy with her new computer classes. Gerry makes a friend named Mikki that he spends more and more time with. (He’s consulting on the repair work for her brother’s boat). There’s a dock worker named Brian that becomes friends with Case and wants to date Jenn. Case finds out Jenn might not be spending the summer with her because she got accepted to computer camp. Jenn comes to visit on the boat and Case tells her about Miki. Jenn doesn’t think they should tell their mother, but Case doesn’t agree and threatens to do it. Jenn ends up bonding with Brian and Case gets jealous. She hears Jenn tell him she’ll be gone for six months and Case gets upset and runs off. Jenn later tries to appease her by saying she just won’t go.
Case learns that her mother isn’t as happy as she thinks with her new job and her boss. But she insist she’s happier in NY. Her mother asks about her father and his cartoons and says he always succeeds eventually and Case advises that she tell him that. Then she hints that “a friend” believes in him. The Mother tho already knows about Miki and doesn’t seem worried. Case eventually caves and sends Jenn a letter telling her it’s ok if she goes to camp. Mother says she took some time off and wants to spend some time on the boat, but what she doesn’t know if Miki’s been on the boat quite a lot. Not only will the mother be coming, so will the Grandmother (whose horrible). They all find out the mother quit her job. When the mother meets Miki she begins to worry and sees she has competition. Surprisingly, the Grandmother tells Miram she should have compromised then she could have kept her husband and her job. Jen leaves for camp. Case and Grandmother go away to NY to give Miiriam and Gerry time alone and they end up having fun going sightseeing. When they get back it’s the 4rth and Jenn makes a surprise visit. Mom announces she’s getting a new job in Jersey and she and Gerry are getting back to together, but Case will have to leave Norma, and they can’t get the house back. Oh well, guess you can’t have everything.
My Thoughts: At first, I really didn’t have any thoughts about this story. I am the daughter of parents whose marriage didn’t work out, but my parents didn’t “separate”. From what I remember (and it has been a LONG time so it might be a little hazy) one day my dad had just moved out.
I do have a sister and at this point in time we probably were close, but then my sister and I were always separated. She’s always lived in Maryland DC. So, I never really got as attached as Case did Jenn.
Both my grandmothers were nice and when I had to stay with them when my mother worked I didn’t have bad memories of those times. In fact, I remember my maternal grandmother’s house and the time I was there with my cousin with fondness.
So I was reading along and then I got to the part where Case said she’d use suicide as a way to keep her parents together and that kind of shocked me. Recently, I had a family member that said they were going to commit suicide and then just disappeared to another city and it had everyone just at a lost and worried out of their minds!
I never really liked the mother in this story because 1) she never quite took her husband seriously. I know from experience it’s harder in this world to make and be successful with an art career if your not in a city that is geared at creativity. 2 not only did she not take her husband seriously she didn’t take her daughter seriously. Even though she *DID* know her daughter, if your CHILD comes to you and threatens sucidie that’s not something you just brush off. Even though Case was just talking.
Neither the mother or Gerry sat her down and had a talk with her that suicide is SERIOUS! It’s not like saying “I’m gonna run away.” One of them I thought should have had at least a talk with her and said “Do you even realize what you're saying?” I certainly wouldn’t have let my child go through with a procedure that probably cost them a lot of money for NOTHING.
I don’t know what I made of the end. This might have SEEMED like a happy ending, but it wasn’t a GOOD ending! Yes, Jenn got to go to computer camp and she became less of an introvert-but really is so bad that she was?. Case and her Grandmother bonded and became a little more tolerant of each other. BUT I do not think the mother changed because she spent a week on the boat with her husband. The only reason she wanted Gerry back was because he had the attention of another woman.
Even though Miki was younger, I still thin she made the better match for Gerry because she actually BELIEVED in him and didn’t put his dreams down. *THAT’S* who the book should have ended up with him with. But I’m learning something the more I see marriage and relationships. They don’t always make sense to me (just my POV).
Rating: 5
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews