Runaway Twin

Runaway Twin (2009), a middle-school novel by American author Peg Kehret, centers on thirteen-year-old Sunny Skyland, a foster child who lost track of her twin sister, Starr after they were taken away from their mother and placed into separate foster homes. Now years older, she has decided to run away from her current foster home to search for the sister she lost. She begins a perilous journey that includes encounters with bullies, animals, and a tornado, but nothing scares her more than the uncertainty of who Starr will be when they’re reunited. Themes explore the American foster care system, the endurance of family bonds, and the perseverance of dreams despite obstacles. Runaway Twin received overwhelmingly positive reviews upon its release and became a hit among its middle-school audience. It won Missouri’s Mark Twain Award, as well as multiple Readers’ Choice Awards.

Runaway Twin begins as Sunny is settling into her latest foster home. She’s been in some bad ones in the past, including one with a domineering father who ran the household strictly and frequently sent her to bed without dinner, and another where she was forced to dress like an old woman by her eccentric foster mother. But now she’s staying with Rita, a kind and welcoming woman whose only real fault is a fixation on healthy foods. Although she tries to follow Rita’s rules, Sunny sneaks candy and cookies when she can. One day, Sunny finds a bag of money. She puts an ad in the newspaper about it, but no one claims it, and she has to decide what to do with it. She decides to track down her twin sister, Starr, whom she lost track of when they were taken away from their mother and separated. Buying hair dye, a bus ticket, and snacks, she takes as little as she can so she won’t be spotted. Leaving Rita a note so she won’t call the police, she takes a bus to a diner, then stows away on a school bus before heading to a hotel. She carefully keeps track to make sure she’s getting closer to Starr, although she only has an address and an old picture.

She wakes up at the motel and, on her way to the bus station, stops at a fast food restaurant. She comes across a stray dog and feeds it some fries. The bus driver won’t allow the dog on the bus, and she can’t bring herself to leave it behind, so she decides to walk the twelve miles to Starr’s location. Naming the dog Snickers, she buys it supplies, and they walk, stopping frequently to let the old dog rest. They eventually arrive at a town, a run-down place without much going on. She spots a restaurant called “June’s Home Cooked Meals” and stops. June welcomes them both to the restaurant and gives Snickers a bowl of stew. When she finds out that Sunny is new in town, she gives them a room to stay the night for only a small sum. After breakfast, June gives them a ride to the next town where they can catch a bus. However, they’re harassed by a group of bullying boys and miss the bus, so they continue to walk. Along the way, a sudden storm turns into a tornado. Snickers is knocked out by a branch, and Sunny goes for help. She finds Randy, one of the bullies, trapped under a sink, and tries to help him. Relief workers offer Sunny a ride in a helicopter, but they won’t take Snickers, so she soldiers on. Eventually, Sunny and Snickers make it to a shelter; Sunny registers under a fake name. Negotiating with Charley, a cab driver, they get a ride to the next town; Charley agrees to look after Snickers until Sunny comes back. She arrives at Starr’s town and gets information from a neighbor on her location. It takes two tries, but she eventually finds Starr.



When Starr answers the door, she doesn’t remember Sunny. She tells Sunny that she doesn’t have a sister. Starr’s adoptive mother, Mrs. Anderson, shows up and invites Sunny in, explaining to Starr that Sunny is her twin sister from whom she was separated at the age of three. She had wanted to adopt both, but it wasn’t allowed. Starr becomes angry and refuses to believe this. Mrs. Anderson insists on calling Rita, and the two women talk about Sunny staying for a while so the sisters can bond. The next day, Mrs. Anderson wants to take the girls shopping, but Starr refuses, going swimming with her friend instead. Sunny and Mrs. Anderson go shopping, and Mrs. Anderson buys her new clothes. Mr. Anderson wants to take both girls out for dinner, but Starr doesn’t come home, instead having dinner with her friend. When she comes home, she announces that she won a poetry contest; her achievement overshadows Sunny. Sunny reads Starr’s poem and finds out that she copied it from the library. She decides she wants to go home and calls Rita. Before Sunny leaves, she and Starr have a final conversation. Sunny tells Starr about the poem; Starr thinks she’s being blackmailed. Sunny only wanted to give her sister the chance to come clean, She realizes that she and Starr have nothing in common. Starr drops out of the contest, telling no one. Sunny heads to the airport, where she is picked up by Rita. Rita agrees to bring Snickers home with them. Sunny realizes she’s finally home.

Peg Kehret is an American author, primarily of novels for middle-grade readers. She is the author of more than thirty books, but is best known for her memoir Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio about her recovery from the deadly disease in her teens.