Violet and Daisy: The Story of Vaudeville's Famous Conjoined Twins (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780593119723)

From the author of The Miracle & Tragedy of the Dionne Quintuplets and The Borden Murders comes the absorbing and compulsively readable story of Violet and Daisy Hilton, conjoined twins who were the sensation of the US sideshow circuits in the 1920s and 1930s.

On February 5, 1908, Kate Skinner, a 21-year-old unmarried barmaid in Brighton, England, gave birth to twin girls. They each had ten fingers and ten toes, but were joined back to back at the base of the spine. Freaks, monsters--that's what they were called. Mary Hilton, Kate's employer and midwife, adopted Violet and Daisy and promptly began displaying the babies as "Brighton's United Twins." Exhibitions at street fairs, carnivals, and wax museums across England and Scotland followed. At 8 years old, the girls came to the United States, eventually becoming the stars of sideshow, vaudeville, and burlesque circuits in the 1920s and 1930s. In a story loaded with questions about identity and exploitation, Sarah Miller delivers a completely compelling, empathetic portrait of two sisters whose bonds were so sacred that nothing -- not even death-- would compel Violet and Daisy to break them.

Author: Sarah Miller
ISBN-10: 059311972X
ISBN-13: 9780593119723
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade Books
Language: English
Published: 04/27/2021
Pages: 320
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.25lbs
Size: 9.20h x 6.20w x 1.30d

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 03/15/2021
School Library Journal 04/01/2021 pg. 141
Publishers Weekly 04/05/2021
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 04/01/2021
Booklist 06/01/2021 pg. 66
Horn Book Magazine 07/01/2021 pg. 136
Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/2021 - Outstanding, Noteworthy In Style