Twin Trouble

The Kids in Ms. Colman's Class #6

by Ann M. Martin, Charles Tang (Illustrator)

When Tammy beats her twin Terry in the school readathon, the sisters who were once so identical begin to demonstrate their differences, and they begin to be concerned, until they are visited by Grandma, who is also a twin. Original.

96 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1997

About the author

Ann Matthews Martin was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane. After graduating from Smith College, Ann became a teacher and then an editor of children's books. She's now a full-time writer.

Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.

Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.

Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.

After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stoneybrook Academy holds a readathon to earn money for the school library based on the number of pages the students reach. Terri is disturbed because her twin sister Tammy reads way faster than her, but they are supposed to be "samesies". Then Terri gets a solo in the school choir and Tammy doesn't. Upset about not being the same as her twin, Terri tries to change the number of pages she's read on her teacher's list, but gets caught (and seems to get in a serious amount of trouble for a 7-year-old whose not even really cheating, just misunderstood - two weeks of no TV?!) But their grandma, who is also a twin, comes to visit and talks to the girls about not having to be exactly the same.

• The math in this book is not adding up. How does the whole school (230 students) only have 250 pages read by the 2nd day, but 22,000 by the end of the week?
• Why can grandma fly out to Connecticut last minute because the twins are having some minor identity crisis, but this is the first time she's seen them in three years (since they were 4). Where have you been grandma?? And why did you bring three suitcases for two weeks? And why did you think socks were a good gift for a 7-year-old granddaughter you haven't seen in three years?

[Terri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Twin Trouble is book number six in the Ann M. Martin series The Kids in Ms. Colman’s Class. If you are familiar with Ann M. Martin books such as the Baby-Sitters Club, you will instantly recognize the chracters and setting in this story. The Kid’s in Ms. Coleman’s Class series is a spinoff of the Baby-Sitters Club Little Sister series (which is a spinoff of the original Baby-Sitters Club series). In this series Martin gives us a sneak peek into Karen Brewer’s daily activities at school by showing us not what she is up to (she has her own series, after all) but what her classmates are struggling with in school and at home.

Read more: http://bookstove.com/children/the-kid...

[Luisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even as an adult, I really enjoyed this book. I read it with my little one who liked the pictures and to hear the names of the different children in Ms. Colman's class.

In this book, Terri has a twin sister named Tammy. They come to find that though they are very alike, there're are things different about them. I felt like this book was good for encouraging a love of school and reading, as well as helping recognize that our different talents are what make us special.

I would recommend this book to children, girls particularly, from ages 8-10.

P.S. Becky Morton is not a real book series, but The Chronicles of Narnia is; just saying. ;)

[Sahil (w7) · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was fantastic.