Twin Pickle - Hardcover

Doro, Ann

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805038027 ISBN 13: 9780805038026

Publisher: Bill Martin Books, 1996

Synopsis

Identical twins Jenny and Ivory are always in the thick of the fun, spending each day jumping on beds, standing upside-down, and playing outdoors, and readers are challenged to guess which twin is which.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

The title notwithstanding, gherkins have nothing to do with this series of vignettes about two sisters. Instead, the narrator's "pickle" is telling high-spirited twins Jenny and Ivory apart. As one or the other girl yowls with the family cat or plays in the mud, her identity remains in doubt. Only the twins' twin beds, labeled "J" and "I," settle the issue. Doro's own granddaughters-named Jenny and Ivory, of course-inspired this volume; unfortunately, their arrhythmic names result in belabored stanzas ("Who is twirling round and round?/ And who needs to get unwound?/ Both of them, it's plain to see,/ Jenny and, of course, Ivory"). Mackie-who sneaks a likeness of her picture book Red Cat, White Cat into one illustration-gives the siblings identical pink-polka-dot dresses and spaghetti-thin arms and legs. Both girls wear their hair in ropelike, Rapunzel-length plaits that resemble the looping tails of their companions, a mouse and cat. Ronald Searle's influence can be detected in Mackie's goggle-eyed animals and flourishy furniture, though the illustrator's human characters (with dots for eyes and no necks to speak of) betray a style that's still in the development stage. Doro establishes a lively guessing game, but the poetry and paintings are hit-or-miss. Ages 4-7.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-K?Identical twins romp through each double-page spread, their dresses a solid triangle of polka-dotted red, their toes pointed, matchstick arms and legs bending like India rubber, and their ridiculously long braids twirling about with a seeming life of their own. "Who will not tell me where she's been? What mischief has that girl been in? Ivory, of course, or is it Jenny?" The text's three rhyming stanzas ask who is up to the described mischief with a fourth naming one child and/or the other. This is varied occasionally by two rhyming couplets: "Who is jumping on the bed? Who is standing on her head? Both of them, I'll bet a penny, Ivory and also Jenny." Although Ivory must sometimes be stretched to three syllables, the rhymes read aloud well and have a lively bounce. The girls may not be pretty but they are energetic and amusing. Mackie's absurd cartoons match the simple, enthusiastic wordplay to a tee.?Karen James, Louisville Free Public Library, KY
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bill Martin Books
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0805038027
• ISBN 13: 9780805038026
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 1
• Illustrator: Mackie Clare