MY SISTER IS DRIVING ME CRAZY

Matilda and Prudence, 13, are most dissimilar identical twins. Mattie, younger by two minutes, tells how their differences nearly divide them. The story begins with the arrival of gorgeous new-boy Cam next door and ends with the opening of their mother's new health food co-op restaurant. Meanwhile, Mattie gets her hair shorn and looks for other ways to be more of a ``normie''—the word she and Pru use for non-twins. There may not be much that's new to say about twins after the onslaught of Sweet Valley stories, Bobbsey Twins, and other formulaic creations; still, Ryan makes these episodes original by treating the girls as distinct personalities who happen to be linked by their identical DNAs. Neither easy answers nor hardcore lessons—just good clean fun, carried out with panache. (Fiction. 11+)*justify no*