IT’S HOT AND COLD IN MIAMI

Life is difficult and puzzling for Rachel, with an identical twin sister, Rebecca, who outshines her in every way. Rachel’s eclectic family consists of her traveling-salesman father, fashion-diva mother and doddery grandparents, who serve the same awful tasting honey cake each Sunday. Constantly in the shadow of her high-achieving sister, Rachel laments her feelings of inadequacy and theorizes about why her father loves her sister best, why Rebecca hates her and why her luck is so poor that she not only winds up with the worst teacher in school but constantly manages to cause trouble for Rebecca and herself. Rubel has moved from her multifaceted informational book about twins, Twice as Nice, into a fictitious scenario told from the perspective of an empathetic underdog in a voice filled with matter-of-fact resignation and some deserved angst. A twin herself, Rubel places her story in her 1960s Miami and has created a lovable if not endearing character amid the bizarre and non-supportive vibes of an extended family. Ultimately, the introduction of a sensitive teacher in Hebrew School brings light to a little girl’s true talent, her artistic flair and subsequent self-confidence. Rubel’s own signature quirky pen-and-ink drawings round out the Floridian and American-Jewish milieu. (Fiction. 8-11)