Thoughts before reading:
This book was a favorite growing up, as well as part of my BSC collection, so I've read it countless times. Obviously not for a long time now, but I still remember the plot pretty well, and what the "trouble with twins" was. As a kid I loved Mallory books anyway as a rule (see my #14 review), plus I was very interested in twins. Thanks to my other bookish obsession, Sweet Valley Twins, I desperately wished I was a twin. Since this was clearly impossible, I instead read and watched anything featuring them.
The cover on this book is pretty terrible though. I'm not sure what is even going on with the twins' faces, and their haircuts/outfits are awful. Mallory looks cute though. She's dressed in the sort of boring, generic outfit I would have worn at her age.
The basics:
Mallory gets a steady sitting job for the Arnold twins, Marilyn and Carolyn. It's for 8 weeks while their mom works on a fundraiser. Mal's excited, hoping she can use the extra money to get her hair cut and her ears pierced. At first, the job goes well. The two girls are completely identical, dressed alike, and even have identical toys and beds. They wear name bracelets though, and Mallory makes an effort to learn their names. Things go downhill quickly from there though, after Mal calls the twins cute and tells them they look like bookends. They immediately take off the name bracelets and run around trying to confuse her.
After that, the twins act worse at each job. They start speaking only in twin talk, so Mallory can't understand a word they say and they can ignore her. The minute their mom leaves, the bracelets always come right off. Then they refuse to say who is who and have fun messing with her. One time when Claudia sits, they even send the wrong twin to piano practice so that Claudia gets in trouble.
Eventually Mallory has the idea to give the twins a taste of their own medicine. When they ask her for a snack, she answers them in pig latin only and refuses to speak English. She finally makes some progress with them when they see how badly it feels to be unable to understand someone. Mal agrees to stop doing it and teach them pig latin if they stop twin talk and wear the bracelets.
Mrs. Arnold then asks the BSC to help out at the twins' 8th birthday party that's coming up. They agree, of course. Leading up to the party, Mal starts thinking about how little kids like to pretend they have twins but get tired of it after awhile, because it's so important to feel like an individual. She realizes the twins are probably acting out because that choice to be individuals has been taken away.
Dawn, Mary Anne, and Mallory end up being the ones to help at the party. The twins confide to Mal that they are tired of feeling like 1 person instead of 2, but their mom buys them all identical things and they don't know how to talk to her. Even at the party, Mallory is the only one who buys them different gifts. Everything else is two of the same thing. Between that and all the identical pictures their mom insists on taking, the girls end up frustrated by the end of their party.
Soon after, Mallory helps the girls talk to their mom about dressing differently. The talk goes well, and their mom feels bad that she never knew. This experiences inspires Mal to try talking to her own parents the same way, about how babyish she feels regarding her appearance. They easily agree to a haircut and pierced ears if she pays for them, but no contacts yet. Jessi also gets permission to pierce her ears, and Claudia wants to get a third hole in hers. The BSC plans a trip to Washington Mall.
Mallory takes the twins shopping with their birthday money to look for some new things. They're already dressing differently and are really excited because the kids at school actually try to tell them apart now. Each girl finds a new outfit of her own taste on the trip, and Mallory gets some earrings.
The BSC mall trip goes well, with everyone that wants to getting their ears pierced. Dawn joins in and gets two holes in each ear. Mallory gets her hair cut, and all the girls give each other new earrings as a surprise.
Timeline:
Still in the first run through 8th grade, and this book spans 8-9 weeks of time. It also says that Claudia broke her leg a few months ago.
My thoughts:
I was really confused about why Mallory had to bargain with her parents for a haircut? That seemed really over the top. It's not like she wanted some crazy style or something, so I don't get it. Doesn't everyone NEED haircuts at some point? It's also pretty harsh that she had to pay for half of it herself. She's only 11, and most kids that age aren't earning any money outside the family. One would think her parents would be providing basic things like this for her still.
On that same note, were pierced ears such a big deal in the 80s? I remember most of my friends having them in elementary school and no one thought anything of it, and that was just the 90s. Having pierced ears at 11 isn't very young, it's not exactly edgy. Even Claudia had to bargain for a third hole, and her parents let her wear basically anything.
As for the main storyline with the Arnolds, it was basically just like I remembered it, so nothing really new there. It's a pretty decent BSC storyline though, in that what the twins are going through makes a lot of sense and is realistic. I did think it was pretty sad that it took a babysitter to come in and figure things out when their parents had no idea. It was pretty astute of Mallory though, who's only a 6th grader herself. She put it all together before she got any confirmation from the twins that she was right.
Misc:
*Poor Logan, everyone is still uncomfortable with him at meetings.
*This book at least explained why there were so many sitting jobs for the same family close together, which I appreciated.
*I learned pig latin from reading this when I was a kid.
*There was a Karen/Andrew/David Michael babysitting chapter in here with no Morbidda Destiny and more Andrew! A miracle!
*I remember being jealous of the twins' birthday party when I first read this, but now it just seemed sad.
*This reminded me of how much fun mall shopping was when I was growing up. Back then it was the greatest thing ever.
*I was surprised that Mrs. Arnold let Mallory take the girls shopping. Wouldn't she want to do that for the first time with them?
*It was pretty messed up that Claudia got scolded when the twins switched places. She had only just met them a few hours before! Try discipling your kids instead...
*The BSC girls keep calling their trip the mall together "malling". Was that really a thing?
Books mentioned:
*Mal's reading Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt
*Baby Island, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, Paddington Abroad, Paddington Helps Out, and Paddington Marches On are all in Mal's kid kit.
*Mal and Jessi have both read and hated All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque.
My rating:
3.5 stars, this was a cute story with lots of nostalgia thrown in.
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