TAKE TWO, THEY’RE SMALL

Nothing turns out quite as planned in this warm and believable story of two classrooms, three sisters, and one new friendship. Amy and May, the troublesome twins from Big Trouble in Twinsville (not reviewed), are starting kindergarten. Eve, their older sister, is going to fourth grade and is hoping for some changes of her own. She is relieved that the fourth-grade classrooms will be far away from the twins and means to keep her life as separated from theirs as possible. She has big plans: she will not let people think she is a goody-goody; she will try to stop worrying so much; and she will make at least one “new, good friend.” Eve is unpleasantly surprised to discover that the long-time fourth-grade teacher, Mr. Leonard, is not in her classroom on the first day as she’d hoped. A new, young Miss Sherman is her teacher. Then she learns that the kindergarten teacher is also named Miss Sherman and she’s the twin sister of the fourth-grade Miss Sherman. The teaching sisters bring the two grades together to study the stars and signs of the zodiac and, as luck would have it, May and Eve are paired up to study Gemini, also twins. Eve does make a new friend, though he is hardly what she would have predicted on the first day. Adam (yes, that makes them Adam and Eve) is a new boy at the school and he’s everything Eve needs in a friend. Though they go through the expected rough spots all new friendships suffer, Adam and Eve become fast friends and a model of a boy-girl friendship, sadly lacking in fiction for this age group. Levy’s lively plot and winning characters are just right for each other. Match this with Johanna Hurwitz’s earlier Starting School for double the pleasure. (Fiction. 7-10)