TWINS

A human child and a giraffe share the ups and downs of being twins.

“Being a twin is great. / Sometimes our friends can’t tell us apart.” The giraffe and the preschool-age child smile at each other, wearing matching green bowties. Each has a constant “pal” for games that require two. They enjoy the same activities, “but we like to do them differently”; the giraffe’s trike and snowman look quite different than the child’s. Being twins isn’t always fun. Sometimes they disagree and fight. Sometimes they “just need to be apart for a while.” But never for long. They know how to compromise, and they realize that they are better together than apart. This simple story pairs easy-to-read sentences with figures placed on generous white backgrounds, eventually culminating in full-color spreads at the end, when the two have gotten over their feud and come together again. The twins are eminently likable characters, and their constant use of “we” is endearing. As for the fact of their obvious differences—one is, well, a giraffe, and the other is a brown-skinned child wearing an Afro—readers will find it either hilarious or perplexing; some may take issue with the equation of a black-presenting child with an animal.

Readers most likely to appreciate both the story and the joke are probably those who are twins themselves