The Tell Tale Start is the opener of the Misadventures of twelve year old twins Edgar and Allan Poe, not just namesakes, but also the great, great, great, great grand nephews of the late and great and spooky Edgar Allan Poe, and also bear a striking resemblance to him as well. Believed to possess above normal intelligence which often leads to them being severely misunderstood, Edgar and Allan are often mixed up in quite a bit of mischief. To their belief, it's all to the good of looking out for their friends and relatives. Orphaned at a young age when their rocket scientist parents are "accidentally" launched into outer-space, the twins are now in the custody of their loving but unassuming aunt and uncle, Judith and Jack. Their parents space tomb can occasionally be seen floating around in space, still in orbit. Shortly before this accident, Mal and Irma gave their twin sons a kitten who they named Roderick Usher. Like his new owners, Roderick also possessed a superb level of intelligence beyond that of the normal feline. He can play statue (dead) and even untie knots! Completely normal stuff. It’s no surprise how dear the cat must be to the Poe family. The boys have been in the custody of their aunt Judith and uncle Jack since their parents tragic accident. So when Roderick disappears, the Poes gas up the family vehicle and head to Kansas to retrieve him, unaware that they are headed for disaster.

Along the way, they attempt to decode secret messages. Identical secret messages. These identical twin boys aren’t just mirror images of one another, afterall. They act, think, eat, breath, smell, and do just about all there is to do the same. They are essentially two boys with one mind!

This was a great introduction into the Misadventures series written by Gordon McAlpine. I sped through the novel and found it to be filled with age appropriate humor. Edgar Allan Poe's involvement cinched it for me. I loved his continual efforts to attempt to get warning messages to his great grand nephews from the great beyond. It was a good story, with the potential to be great. However, when I think about the targeted audience, I feel it was written perfectly to cater to younger age levels.
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This is the first book in a series about two mischievous twin brothers, Edgar and Allan Poe, who are the great-great-great-great-grandnephews of Edgar Allan Poe. They also happen to be geniuses who can communicate telepathically which tends to make their pranks even more epic. When their favorite cat goes missing, they convince their aunt and uncle who are their caretakers to take them on a road trip to retrieve him. Unfortunately, this is all part of a plot of an evil scientist who wants to capture the boys. Thankfully, their great(x4) uncle is sending them messages from the great beyond to help them along the way. I found this book to be pure fun and I can't wait to share it with students. I think this would make an excellent choice for a student book club or to pair with a poetry unit to introduce Edgar Allan Poe. There are two more books in the series as well. The book has rich vocabulary, humor, and lots of twists and turns that I think students will love. ( )

Background: The great great great great grand nephews of the famous Edgar Allen Poe are Edgar and Allen Poe, twins that share his love of the dark, creepy, and unusual. They are also quite unusual themselves, while twins, and really two separate people, they are interchangeable, and share one mind. They know what the other one knows instantly, as soon as his brother learns, and there is a secret organization that seems to be after them.

Review: The Tell Tale Start was a great listen. At a three hour length on audiobook, it wasn't too long or too short and kept my attention the whole way through. Edgar and Allen are two characters but they are one, they do everything together and are almost exactly the same. They are funny and sarcastic and always keep people one their toes. They were witty and fun and that is what made this book great. The plot was not super anxiety ridden or suspenseful, but had a good pace and flowed very well. This is a wonderful start to a fun series for middle-graders. I think that parents will be happy to know that the Poe boys are smart and they are good role models for being educated, but maybe a little too smart making them often troublemakers. Too smart for their own good almost.

I thought it was a great combination and I am excited for this series to continue.

Recommended for Middle Grade readers both boys and girls should enjoy it. ( )

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Alright, guys. This is going to ACTUALLY be a short review. I thought about not reviewing this one, since I don’t have much to say about it, but other people do mini reviews and they can be a nice change of pace, so let’s do this thing.

The Tell-Tale Start wasn’t on my radar at all, but it showed up highlighted in an email about Halloween audiobooks, so I figured I’d give it a shot, because it was short and I’m willing to experiment with audiobooks. I liked it enough to want to finish, but not enough to want to read more. Now I’m going to break it down bullet point style.

-Really liked the little turf war between Shakespeare and Poe in the afterlife. The way they mock each other is delightful. It also made me think affectionately of Poe from the Croak trilogy by Gina Damico, which I can relate to almost anything.

-Liked the connection between the twins and the consideration of its applications. I’m not sure how much this will be appreciated by the middle grade audience, but the way these two literally know what the other is thinking at all times is pretty cool, and I like that McAlpine really considered the implications of this.

-Confused by why the twins talked aloud to one another so much if they knew everything they were thinking already. Though I suppose it would have been creepy if they never communicated with one another out loud.

-Reminded of how the Weasley twins must have been when they were wee humans, performing pranks and generally being a nuisance. Of course, they would be way more lovable than the Poes.

-Disappointed at how much I don’t care about the characters. The POV is distancing. Roderick the cat is obviously the best character.

-Annoyed by the fact that Arte Johnson isn’t a very good narrator, at least for this listener. Whenever he read a line as the twins, I cringed.

The Tell-Tale Start was well worth the three hours it took from my life, but it’s also really not my kind of middle grade. ( )

Though it's yet another juvenile series about unique children in peril from nefarious forces, McAlpine employs some humor and Arte Johnson's gruff narration is oddly entertaining. ( )