Ten-year-old Ruby and Garnet are identical twins who do everything together.
Especially since their mother died three years earlier. They dress alike, wear
their hair the same, and sit together in every class. In fact, everything about
them is the same–except their personalities. Ruby is funny and outgoing,
Garnet is sensitive and shy. Together they’re the perfect double act–and
that’s just the way they like it.
Soon the twins’ life is turned upside down. Their dad has been spending a lot
of time with his new ‘friend’ Rose. Ruby and Garnet can’t stand Rose. To make
matters worse, Dad and Rose buy a bookstore out in the country and the whole
family moves. Ruby hates their new school, but Garnet thinks it isn’t all that
bad. When Garnet befriends some of their new classmates, Ruby feels betrayed
and stops speaking to Garnet. Garnet misses her sister terribly, but has to
admit it’s nice doing things on her own for a change. Somehow, the girls will
have to find a way to maintain their special twin relationship without spending
every minute of the day together.
Publishers Weekly
An unexceptional mix of familiar plot devices, this British import is almost
gratingly obvious. Ten-year-old twins Ruby and Garnet take turns narrating, and
although their voices aren’t especially different, they are meant to be
opposites. Ruby is outgoing, Garnet shy; Ruby leads, Garnet follows. Their
mother has died long ago, and now their father has a girlfriend, whom they
immediately reject. The four move from the city to the country, where the twins
are desperately unhappy. Serious issues, like the burdens of twinhood and the
difficulties of forging independent identities, become lost amid a surfeit of
frothy subplots, including an audition for a TV show and a plan to enter a
ritzy boarding school. The narration is frequently cloying, as in Ruby’s
comments about her father’s taste for classic literature: ‘If we have a look at
Dad’s book we wonder what the Dickens they’re about and they seem very Hardy,
but Dad likes them.’ The brittle nature of Wilson’s (Elsa, Star of the Shelter)
writing finds its extension in her glib resolution of the conflicts, and the
illustrations, rendered as if by Ruby and Garnet, are as flat and unrevealing
as the story. Ages 9-12. (Mar.)
School Library Journal
Gr 4-6A story written in the form of a journal with identical twin sisters
writing in turns. The 10-year-old girls have always relished their twinship:
making it impossible for people to tell them apart, working out signals so they
can pretend to sneeze simultaneously, toss their braids in perfect
synchronization, etc. At least, Ruby has always loved itbut then she’s the
dominant, extroverted one. Garnet seems to have been going along for the ride,
safe in Ruby’s shadow. When the twins’ lives begin to changea new girlfriend
for their father, and then a new job in a new town with the corresponding new
school for his daughterstheir relationship is suddenly ripe for examination.
When Ruby persuades her to audition for a TV series, Garnet rises to the
occasion but is paralyzed with fear and subsequently guilt-ridden to have
spoiled Ruby’s chance at stardom. Next, Ruby plots their escape from home by
applying to boarding school, but only Garnet passes the entrance exam. In the
throes of making the decision to attend, she finds inner strength, and in
finally acknowledging her twin’s separate identity, Ruby affirms her love.
Though the twins’ voices are not always clearly differentiated as to vocabulary
and style, their characters and interests are consistently distinct.
Black-and-white cartoons add to the generally lighthearted tone. This is a
solid but not a stunning read.Miriam Lang Budin, Mt. Kisco Public Library, NY
Kirkus Reviews
From Wilson (The Suitcase Kid, 1997, etc.), a lightweight British import that
is a telling study of twindom’s trials and tribulations. Doing their best to
make everyone miserable in the process, ten-year-old identical twins Ruby and
Garnet reluctantly adapt to changes in their family and themselves in this
revealin”