Never Mind - Softcover

Avi; Vail, Rachel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1416901426 ISBN 13: 9781416901426

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Childrens Books, 2006

Synopsis

Edward and Meg are like night and day, oil and water. Meg zigs while Edward zags. How could two such different people be twins? Well, they are, but they don't have to like it -- or each other.

Seventh grade means different schools for the pair: Brainy Meg's at ultracompetitive Fischer, while Charlton Street Alternative School is the place for freewheeling Edward. Oddly enough, it's just when Edward and Meg are finally out of each other's shadows that the trouble begins.

Within just a week, Meg's aspirations for popularity, imaginary boyfriend, and angst over a terrible yellow ensemble her mother has chosen combine with Edward's devious planning, lack of singing ability, and top-secret soft spot to set off a showdown the likes of which twindom has never before seen.

How is it, then, that this final showdown is so much fun? Could it be that Meg and Edward are more alike than they thought?

Never mind. Read the book!

About this title

About the Author

Avi is the author of more than sixty books, including Crispin: The Cross of Lead, a Newbery Medal winner, and Crispin: At the Edge of the World. His other acclaimed titles include The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle and Nothing But the Truth, both Newbery Honor Books, and most recently The Seer of Shadows. He lives with his family in Colorado.

Rachel Vail is the award-winning author of the critically acclaimed novels If We Kiss and Lucky, Gorgeous, and Brilliant (the Avery sisters trilogy) and more than a dozen other novels for young teens, including the Friendship Ring series. Rachel has also written many beloved picture books, including Piggy Bunny and Sometimes I'm Bombaloo, and two hit novels for elementary school kids, Justin Case: School, Drool, and Other Daily Disasters and Justin Case: Shells, Smells, and the Horrible Flip-Flops of Doom . Rachel lives in New York City with her husband and their two sons.

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-7-Seventh-grade twins Edward and Meg are the first to proclaim that they are as different as night and day; Edward is a puny free spirit who attends an "alternative" middle school, while Meg is a control freak with low self-esteem. The twins take turns telling the story of how Meg's desire to fit in with the popular girls in her elite school and Edward's inability to resist taking his sister down a peg result in a fabrication of monstrous proportions. Soon everyone at Meg's school thinks she has a tall, gorgeous, rock star brother named Ted, a fiction that Edward (unbeknownst to Meg) encourages by impersonating Ted on the phone. The voices of the twins are eerily realistic and convincing, from Edward's choppy, casual comments on life to Meg's anguished ruminations. The readiness of most characters to believe whatever people tell them, leading to ludicrous misunderstandings, requires a willing suspension of disbelief, but the way events rapidly spin out of control makes this an enticing read for boys and girls alike. The climax, during which Edward's makeshift band does NOT suddenly become the next Nirvana, is hysterically funny and over-the-top, yet completely realistic. The twins' dawning tolerance and appreciation of one another at the end is a little pat considering their earlier violent antipathy, but also quite a relief. Light, fun, and sure to be popular.
Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public Library
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About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Childrens Books
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1416901426
• ISBN 13: 9781416901426
• Binding: Paperback