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Taylor Twins #2
It Takes Two
Connie and Carrie, the Taylor twins, have always loved being the centre of attention. But one day Mom announces that she's expecting, and soon they're no longer the stars of the family, and they may have to move to a bigger house.
172 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
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29 people want to read
About the author
Bernice Thurman Hunter
19 books44 followers She was born in Toronto, Ontario, on November 3, 1922 and died May 29, 2002. She married her high school sweetheart, Lloyd Hunter, and had two children, Anita and Heather, and four grandchildren, Meredith, Lisa, Hunter and Franceline. No Greats.
Bernice was the middle child of 5 children (Wilma, Gordon, Bernice, Jack and Robert). She struggled in school because they moved so often. The Booky Trilogy, set during the Great Depression, depicts her family being forced to stay ahead of the bailiff, who threw them out when her unemployed father couldn't afford the rent. (Despite the hardships of poverty, it was her nature to be happy, so the books are upbeat.) They lived in Birchcliff and Swansea. The "new house" was on Cornell Avenue and she went to Birchcliff Public School, but most of her childhood and teens were spent on Lavinia, which is why Swansea claims her for their own. She attended Runnymede Collegiate, but didn't graduate because the war started and she went to work (depicted in The Girls They Left Behind). As a new bride, she lived on Gladstone Avenue in Toronto. Her husband was transferred to Peterborough, so they moved to Millbrook when her children were young. In 1956, she and her husband bought their own home on Meldazy Drive in a beautiful new subdivision in Scarborough, when McCowan was a gravel road and north of Ellesmere was farmland. Her books accurately depict these locales in different eras. Toronto is "a character" in her books.
She was interested in writing since early childhood and would often have a captive audience of school chums lined up along the curb to listen to her stories. In her teens, she met and had the temerity to present a story to her idol, L.M. Montgomery. The famous author of Anne Of Green Gables complimented Bernice: "Your characters ring true!...You have a good imagination" – blissful words for the young author's ears, but the next bit of advice was a crushing blow to the fourteen-year-old's already faltering self-esteem. Montgomery said, "A writer must have higher education -- it is imperative that you go to University." The young hopeful went away dejected. What Ms. Montgomery could not know was that Bernice came from a very poor background and had no hope of a University Education. The fateful words stayed buried in her heart for many years. An avid reader, she was self-educated. She often read a book in one night.
She continued to write because writing was as natural to her as breathing. When her own children were small, Bernice wrote for them an ongoing story about their lives in Millbrook, Ontario with themselves as heroines. (Her first manuscript, Kimberley of Millpond, has been published 55 years later in 2010 by her daughter.) Her stories were written in longhand because Bernice didn't own a typewriter. It was not until her children were grown that she decided to try to publish. She obtained an old Underwood typewriter and tapped out a story about her first grandchild, aptly titled, "A Grandchild Can Make Life Beautiful Again". She sent it to The Toronto Star and they published it and sent her a cheque for fifty-dollars. After that she wrote and published numerous stories for children in magazines and anthologies and then went on to publish 17 novels.
Bernice's novels, especially the "Booky" trilogy, are autobiographical in nature. Her strength as a writer lies in her ability to bring her childhood memories vividly to life for her young readers. Because the setting and tone of her novels accurately capture the past, she was acknowledged by the Toronto Historical Society and her books are used in history as well as language programs in schools. She was in constant demand as a guest speaker in schools and libraries across Canada and her daughter, Heather Hunter, now goes in her stead. Heather gives a power point presentation on Bernice's life and works.
Of her school visits, Bernice once said: "My favourite part of a school visit is 'que
Bernice was the middle child of 5 children (Wilma, Gordon, Bernice, Jack and Robert). She struggled in school because they moved so often. The Booky Trilogy, set during the Great Depression, depicts her family being forced to stay ahead of the bailiff, who threw them out when her unemployed father couldn't afford the rent. (Despite the hardships of poverty, it was her nature to be happy, so the books are upbeat.) They lived in Birchcliff and Swansea. The "new house" was on Cornell Avenue and she went to Birchcliff Public School, but most of her childhood and teens were spent on Lavinia, which is why Swansea claims her for their own. She attended Runnymede Collegiate, but didn't graduate because the war started and she went to work (depicted in The Girls They Left Behind). As a new bride, she lived on Gladstone Avenue in Toronto. Her husband was transferred to Peterborough, so they moved to Millbrook when her children were young. In 1956, she and her husband bought their own home on Meldazy Drive in a beautiful new subdivision in Scarborough, when McCowan was a gravel road and north of Ellesmere was farmland. Her books accurately depict these locales in different eras. Toronto is "a character" in her books.
She was interested in writing since early childhood and would often have a captive audience of school chums lined up along the curb to listen to her stories. In her teens, she met and had the temerity to present a story to her idol, L.M. Montgomery. The famous author of Anne Of Green Gables complimented Bernice: "Your characters ring true!...You have a good imagination" – blissful words for the young author's ears, but the next bit of advice was a crushing blow to the fourteen-year-old's already faltering self-esteem. Montgomery said, "A writer must have higher education -- it is imperative that you go to University." The young hopeful went away dejected. What Ms. Montgomery could not know was that Bernice came from a very poor background and had no hope of a University Education. The fateful words stayed buried in her heart for many years. An avid reader, she was self-educated. She often read a book in one night.
She continued to write because writing was as natural to her as breathing. When her own children were small, Bernice wrote for them an ongoing story about their lives in Millbrook, Ontario with themselves as heroines. (Her first manuscript, Kimberley of Millpond, has been published 55 years later in 2010 by her daughter.) Her stories were written in longhand because Bernice didn't own a typewriter. It was not until her children were grown that she decided to try to publish. She obtained an old Underwood typewriter and tapped out a story about her first grandchild, aptly titled, "A Grandchild Can Make Life Beautiful Again". She sent it to The Toronto Star and they published it and sent her a cheque for fifty-dollars. After that she wrote and published numerous stories for children in magazines and anthologies and then went on to publish 17 novels.
Bernice's novels, especially the "Booky" trilogy, are autobiographical in nature. Her strength as a writer lies in her ability to bring her childhood memories vividly to life for her young readers. Because the setting and tone of her novels accurately capture the past, she was acknowledged by the Toronto Historical Society and her books are used in history as well as language programs in schools. She was in constant demand as a guest speaker in schools and libraries across Canada and her daughter, Heather Hunter, now goes in her stead. Heather gives a power point presentation on Bernice's life and works.
Of her school visits, Bernice once said: "My favourite part of a school visit is 'que
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 8, 2019
I am going to start my review of Bernice Thurman Hunter's It Takes Two (the sequel to her Two Much Alike and as such the second novel featuring the Taylor family and in particular identical twins Connie and Carrie, with Connie once again acting as first person narrator) by engaging in a bit of a rant, and no, not about the novel itself, but about the fact that I have recently read a few annoyingly scathing online reviews of It Takes Two that both make me cringe and shake my head with and in consternation. For while I do admit and realise that much of the content and some of the themes featured in It Takes Two are of course more than a bit old-fashioned (just like with the first novel Two Much Alike) I really do have to wonder and question why some reviewers would actually and indeed majorly fault Bernice Thurman Hunter for this in a novel, in two novels that are very clearly and totally, utterly set in the 1950s. I mean, pontificating about the problems with datedness of content and attitudes in a very much time and place specific story is at best rather massively naive, especially since Bernice Thurman Hunter's children's novels are for the most part always set in the past, and I for one absolutely appreciate, no totally love that the author is NEVER anachronistic and as such also respects her audience, also respects child readers enough to not artificially shield them from outmoded and no longer current attitudes, from information and details of everyday life clearly not of their time. And truly, it is most certainly quite massively saddening and annoying that some reviews I have read online with regard to It Takes Two seemingly do not even want children confronted with and by the past or think that children somehow cannot understand or appreciate that during the 1950s, television was still a novelty and that when the Taylor family is once again blessed with twins, that their diapers (before the marketing and availability of Pampers) would need to be washed, dried and then be used again and again.
Now with regard to the novel itself, with It Takes Two, Bernice Thurman Hunter has once again penned a to and for me absolutely delightful and insightful family type of tale that glowingly brings the 1950s to life. And while there is not ever really all that much conflict shown and depicted, still It Takes Two is absolutely charming and also as such both readable and indeed also very much relatable (especially to and for older children who have considerably younger siblings and thus are often thrust into the roles of caregivers and to quote from It Takes Two "built-in" babysitters). A totally lovely (in my humble opinion) tableau of 1950s family life is Bernice Thurman Hunter's It Takes Two and one that I do very highly recommend to those readers who enjoy historical fiction that is time and place specific and does not shy away from presenting the past as it was (both positively and negatively). Five shining stars!
Now with regard to the novel itself, with It Takes Two, Bernice Thurman Hunter has once again penned a to and for me absolutely delightful and insightful family type of tale that glowingly brings the 1950s to life. And while there is not ever really all that much conflict shown and depicted, still It Takes Two is absolutely charming and also as such both readable and indeed also very much relatable (especially to and for older children who have considerably younger siblings and thus are often thrust into the roles of caregivers and to quote from It Takes Two "built-in" babysitters). A totally lovely (in my humble opinion) tableau of 1950s family life is Bernice Thurman Hunter's It Takes Two and one that I do very highly recommend to those readers who enjoy historical fiction that is time and place specific and does not shy away from presenting the past as it was (both positively and negatively). Five shining stars!
June 14, 2018
I'm marking this higher for nostalgic reasons. As I wrote in my review for Two Much Alike, I LOVED the Taylor Twins growing up. I just randomly had this book in my bookshelf and decided to read it one day and just loved it and I would reread it like all the time. I haven't read it in years now and it was like damn I am a decade older than these kids. They read a lot like kids (because duh they were) but it also showed their growth and maturity throughout the book which is great.
4/5
4/5
May 21, 2017
i loved this one beause how the girls presonled were difternt from each other also how when thire parents were makeing thire secend family aand the they felt like there being replaced
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October 21, 2015My first "chapter" book lol!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews