A thoughtful, well-written, and insightful view into the world of identical twins, triplets, quadruplets, naturally-occuring clones, and similar individuals. The topics discussed within this book (as is the case with nearly every book ever written by Andrew Clements) addresses a common problem/reality of human life that is consistently overlooked by more conventional and less reflective authors. Having had cousins who were fraternal twins and having provided childcare to identical twins, before, I have more insights into some of these heart-wrenching, predictable struggles over identity issues that haunt twins/clones in ways unique to the rest of us.
The identical twins I've cared for before have made similar stupid naming mistakes with their infants. I swear parents of newborns never put one ounce of thought into the fact that their offspring WILL, in fact, become adults at some point, unless they die first!!!!!!! As such, they need to give their child(ren) names that are appropriate both for a child and for an adult and not play stupid rhyming games with them (or, similarly as bad, give them all names that start with the same letter, which makes it just as hard for strangers to recall the name of any of their offspring)! The identical twins Ive cared for were given similar rhyming names, like the boys in this book (I believe they were Janette and Danette). However, each child was "assigned" a separate color of clothing/toys/bedding/etc. to wear/use (one had to wear/use red, while the other was assigned blue),
Both in the case of the boys in this book, as well as, the young girls I once knew, learning which child was which would have been far more effectively handled if each child had to wear their hair in a completely different style/length and COLOR, than their twin. Hair shape and color would mark each child distinctively, while still giving each child a voice in her/his appearance. Clothing items can easily be switched by mischievous twins, but hair length/shape/style and color CANNOT be "switched" at will, by children. By the time they reach adolescence, they will no longer EVER want to be "identical" to each other (as was clearly displayed in this book), so they will not attempt to try to fool anyone, by that point, unless they have serious mental health and/or psychopathic tendencies (which will be much bigger problems than confusing appearances).
Another issue this book raises is one I'm aware of, as a teacher. Regardless of how similar or different two siblings may or may not be, they should NEVER be placed in the same class(es) together. Sibling rivalry is a serious enough issue that making siblings classmate competitors on top of family competitors is a GUARANTEED recipe for educational disasters! They schools I've attended and taught in have automatically had rules against putting siblings together in a classroom, however, I'm aware there are many students across the nation and world that do not follow that practice.
I had a sense of just how bad it could be to put two siblings in the same class when I was once forced to teach two cousins in my classroom. They were two very different children being raised by two very different sisters/mothers. The older of the two cousins was a gifted girl who lived within a stable, two parent home and had parents invested in her education. The younger cousin was a boy who lived with a single mom who had two other children with two other men/fathers. That boy entered my class with significant intellectual/learning delays which led to him being placed in special needs programs for a couple of years before starting formal school.
Both children were Hispanic and started the school year not knowing how to speak/read/write English. By the end of the year, the girl was entirely fluent in speaking/understanding verbal English and quite advanced in her abilities to engage in early reading and writing activities, in English. The boy was a different story because his mother (who had graduated from a USA high school) had never learned to speak either Spanish or English fluently - thus spoke in this odd blend of the two languages.
This mish-mash of the two languages confused her son, who could never really understand that Spanish and English are two distinctive and different languages, rather than a single, blended one. He was able to speak and understand English about 75% of the time, by the end of the school year. However, he was falling further and further behind his peers in every subject area, as his mother made no efforts to help her child learn anything, at home, nor to speak either Spanish or English more consistently, for his benefit.
He already had some bullying tendencies, by the time he was in preschool - tendencies I very much doubt his mother ever took seriously - thus I feel profound grief when I think of how he's probably turned out, by now. The circumstances of his life were not his fault, yet he suffered dearly for having ended up in the family he did - even if his cousin has probably gone on to succeed brilliantly, because of the benefits of the home she was born into. So very tragic to watch a young child fight against horrible odds, every minute of every day and to be able to do so little for him, beyond my best. He felt so bad about his inability to perform up to the level of his peers (or communicate with them, even the fluent Spanish speakers), that he tended to socialize/play only with his cousin - a fact she didn't appreciate at all. I told both parents that the two children should never again be placed in the same classroom (for the sake of each of them) and, fortunately, both parents agreed to that arrangement.