Twins

For most of us, twins are fascinating.  What fun it must be to have a built in best friend!   Most of us imagined the tricks we could play on teachers and parents, if only we had an identical twin.

Books about twins are fun to read, too.  This week, two new books about twins arrived in the library.

In The Other Half of My Heart, by Sundee T. Frazier, twins Keira and Minni could not look more different if they tried.  Minni looks white, with red hair, freckles and blue eyes, just like her father.  Keira is darker with dark tight curls and she resembles her mother.  When the twins are invited to spend ten days with their maternal grandmother, and participate in the Miss Preteen Black Pearl of America program, Minni is the one who stands out as different.  Readers in grades 5 and up will enjoy this book.

Younger readers might enjoy Ting and Ling : not exactly the same by Grace Lin.   The identical twins that I know get a little annoyed that people think they should be alike in everything.  Ting and Ling are no different.  This book, for readers in grades 1 and up, shows how different Ting and Ling actually are.

Twins have interested authors of older books, too.  Katherine Paterson won a Newbery award for Jacob I have loved, a story about fraternal twin sisters. Though these twins are the best of friends, the attention that beautiful and talented Caroline receives makes Sara Louise envious.  Caroline seems to get everything that Louise wants.  The story follows the girls into adulthood.  Older readers, grades 6 and up, will find this book satisfying.

Lost and found by Andrew Clements centers on identical twins, Ray and Jay.  They have long resented being treated as if they are just one person.  When they move to a new school, they discover a clerical error that lets them take turns being just one person.  Readers in grades 4 and up will enjoy the escapades of these clever twins.