What if you were minding your own business, getting ready for school, when you look into the bathroom mirror and see somebody else looking back at you? He looks just like you, only he's a boy. Wondering what's going on, you reach up to touch the mirror, then --- boom! --- he grabs your hand and pulls you over the sink and through the mirror, into his bathroom! It looks just like yours (except his laundry basket is on the left and yours is on the right). You look around for something to clobber him with, but the boy tells you that he's really you. He lives in a parallel world, that is mostly just like your world, except everything is reversed. You're a girl; he's a boy. Your world runs by science, so his world runs by magic. And he needs your help desperately, or else a wicked witch named Lori Lee will take over his world and control everybody.

This happens to Chrissie Scott. The boy's name is Chris Scott. He has an older sibling who is absolutely terrific at everything, not a klutz like he is, and her name is Samantha. A lot like Chrissie's older brother, named Sam. See how it works? Well, Chrissie is stunned, but when Chris lifts up his shirt and shows her the birthmark on his back, just like hers except it's on the other side of his spine, she believes him. And she decides to help him. If Lori Lee can get all four Elements --- Earth, Air, Fire, and Water --- she will rule Chris's world. She already has Fire. They have to stop her.

In this first book in a new series called THE MAGICAL STATES OF AMERICA, Chrissie and Chris take on a battle that's a lot bigger than they are. They travel magically to the far ends of the earth trying to catch the Elementals before Lori Lee can. They battle a black cat, a big rat, a deadly crow, a cranky dragon, and a bad-tempered snowman. They get put onto a flying carpet and sailed to jail by the police. How can they save the world from there? Will Chrissie ever get back home to her own world? And what does she discover about Lori Lee and parallel universes?

You will be absolutely delighted when you read this book, and you'll want to keep up with the adventures of these "twins" in future stories.

   --- Reviewed by Tamara Penny