CONTRIBUTORS CONTACT

Teen Lit Rocks

Navigation
You are here: Home / Features / Selective Collective: “Being Sloane Jacobs” and Identity Swapping

Selective Collective: “Being Sloane Jacobs” and Identity Swapping

by 4 Comments

Selective Collective

This month our Selective Collective book is Lauren Morrill’s “Being Sloane Jacobs.” We really enjoyed her adorable opposites-attract debut novel “Meant to Be,” so we were looking forward to reading this book as well. “Being Sloane Jacobs” was also very entertaining and actually read like a movie, considering the theme. Morrill offers up an identity swap story: there are two girls the same age with the same name: Sloane Emily Jacobs and Sloane Devon Jacobs. Not only do they share a name and age, but they also resemble each other and are attending intensive summer camps in Montreal that require the same skill: ice skating. Sloane Emily is attending a figure-skating camp (for the kind of skaters who go on to the Olympics, not the ice capades) and Sloane Devon is on her way to ice-hockey camp. Sloane Emily is from a wealthy politician’s family in DC, and Sloane Devon is from a working-class family in Philly. They decide to switch places and quickly discover that the grass is not always greener on the other side. Many thanks to Lauren’s publicist Lauren at Random House for sending us all copies of the book!

Being Sloane Jacobs

Just as Morrill’s novel has dealt with identity swap, over the years there have been many movies that have dealt with the same issue. Whether it’s identical twins, mothers and daughters, or just strangers who look alike, it’s been covered in different movies. We would like to highlight some of our favorites:

The Parent Trap – Of course we have to start with the classic identity swap movie.  When Hallie and Annie meeting at summer camp and discover they’re twins who were separated when their parents divorced they decide to do something about it.  So they switch places in the hopes of getting their parents back together again.  This is so much fun to see a young, sweet Lindsey Lohan when she was one of Disney’s sweethearts.

Monte Carlo – Selena Gomez stars as Grace Bennett, a high school student who has worked hard to earn money for a trip to Paris.  Selena Gomez also stars as British heiress Cordelia Winthrop-Scott.  Grace is accidentally mistaken for Cordelia and she goes along with it because of the perks.  A lot of fun and confusion, but it all adds up to an entertaining movie.

Dave – Kevin Kline plays Dave Kovic a man who looks exactly like the President of the U.S.  He is hired to pretend to be the President at different functions.  Then when the real President has a stroke, he is asked to pretend to be the President to keep the Vice-President from taking office.  Complications arise when Dave discovers a lot of corruption surrounding the President and even more, he’s starting to fall for the First Lady.  However, Dave turns out to be a better President than the actual President.

The Prince and the Pauper – It was originally written by Mark Twain about Edward VI, the King of England as the central character.  From 1909 – 2007, Twain’s story has been set to film many times.  Although the plot has had some variations it usually involved a rich or royal person swapping with a poor person.  Then they each learn what it’s like to be the other person and grow as individuals.

Freaky Friday – Another one of Lohan’s movies that rose her to true stardom.  The movie starred Lohan alongside Jamie Lee Curtis in a hysterical swap of identities when mother and daughter swap bodies.  Of course at first they each think the other has a much easier life and they quickly learn that it’s not exactly true.  Although they’re not twins and don’t look alike, this movie still has the same elements of learning about the other person’s life that are found in “Being Sloane Jacobs.”

Trading Places – Like “Freaky Friday” this one is not about twins or people who are similar that swap places.  Instead we have the Duke Brothers, Randolph and Mortimer (played by Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche) who own a commodities brokerage firm.  They have a disagreement about whether it’s nature or nurture that makes man and decide to conduct an experiment.  So they manipulate circumstances so that their Managing Director, Louis Winthorpe III (Dan Aykroyd) is arrested and they give his job to poor street hustler Billy Valentine (Eddy Murphy).  They each seem to adapt to their new circumstances.  Have they changed completely?  That is the question that the movie tries to answer.

The idea of identity swapping has been entertaining us since 1881 when Mark Twain first published “The Prince and the Pauper.”  There are other movies and books that have also touched on this theme.  Hopefully, there will be more books like this in the future. In the meantime, we can enjoy “Being Sloane Jacobs.”

Make sure to check out everyone else in the Selective Collective’s features, especially the Author Q&A + Giveaway if you want a chance to win a copy of the book!

Brittany @ The Book Addict’s Guide | Round Table Discussion

Tammy @ YA Crush | Book Review

Candice @ The Grown-Up YA | Author Q&A + Giveaway

Daphne & Kristina @ Gone Pecan | Page to Screen: Casting

Share
Share3
+1
Stumble
Pin
Shares 3

Comments

comments

Comments

  2. Love all the movies you ladies listed! Trading Places is one of my favorite movies – too funny that it made this list! Also I had forgotten about Monte Carlo; while it does star arch-nemesis Selena Gomez, it was a totally cute movie!

    Reply

  3. I completely forgot about Dave! I loved that movie! I also really liked the LiLo version of Freaky Friday (prob more for Jamie Lee Curtis though.) GREAT PICKS!

    Reply

  4. The Parent Trap and Freaky Friday were definitely some of my favorites! LOVE the original Parent Trap and I liked the Lindsay Lohan version too. I love how they modernized it and snuck things in like the old Vicky haha! 🙂
    Estelle tweeted me this morning and mentioned 17 Again and right she is! I forgot all about that one! 🙂

    Reply

What Do You Think?