DOUBLE OR NOTHING WITH THE TWO AND ONLY KELLY TWINS

The identical Kelly twins return with more stories about their unique relationship.

As in the first chapter book featuring Arlene and Ilene Kelly, five episodic chapters form a larger story arc about these white second-graders. The first story reminds readers of the twins’ similarities, including their matching clothes, pigtails, and eyeglasses, but it is “a big mystery” why they each like different flavors and kinds of food. Noticing this difference is just the start of the girls’ budding individual identities, a theme that continues throughout the book. In subsequent chapters, classmates begin to notice subtle differences between the twins when Ilene loses a tooth before Arlene, but when the girls are given different poetry assignments, they find a way to tackle them together. And in other chapters, the twins question whether they always have to be together and look alike when a misunderstanding about a sleepover with another set of identical twins (part of a set of triplets) leads to the girls’ spending the night apart and a school lice outbreak leads to new haircuts. These realistic predicaments with warm resolutions will fare well with the chapter-book set.

Singletons’ interest in twins will be piqued while multiples will find much to relate to.