ME, MY SISTER, AND I

Fresh from My Sister Is Driving Me Crazy (1991), eighth- grader Mattie relates the further ordeals of life with twin sister Pru. The girls' once-identical paths take markedly different twists as Pru gets more involved as tambourine player for the rock band Paramedics, while Mattie experiences the awakening of political conscience: she hopes to help her mother's friend Minerva Hightower get elected to city council over slickster Harvey Jenkins, who is using every big-money, down-and- dirty trick in the book. Realistically, he wins; also realistically, Mattie's political concerns don't overshadow her worries about which boy—handsome Cam or brainy Nelson—to ask to the Sadie Hawkins dance. Though this subplot does lapse into sitcom-style high-jinks and absurd jocularity, the twins remain the refreshingly distinct individuals they were in the first book, while the rest of this funny, well-paced novel offers mature insights into the unfolding of civic duty and social responsibility against a vivid backdrop of local politics. (Fiction. 11+)