And Francine has more of a desire to break away from her twin a little and be seen as an individual rather than a unit, even though Maureen does not really care what anyone else thinks. Maureen, for instance, often finds herself hanging out at the mall with her friends who are boy watching, even though she clearly is not enjoying herself. The story itself will be familiar to fans of the trendy middle school graphic novels, most of them which seem to deal with the difficulties of changing friend groups as individuals mature at different rates. A few panels where the characters are almost drawn in a chibi-like style add to the sheer adorableness of this book. Something about those cheerful pinks and yellows really says, “Middle school!” to me, even if Francine–sorry, Fran–is longing to be seen as grown up and mature. I adore graphic novels with cute and colorful illustrations, so the brightly-colored spreads in Twins immediately caught my attention. The result is a touching story about what it means to be friends, but also family. Francine, however, wants to make a new start as “Fran” and she does not want her sister tagging along. Maureen imagines they will spend the sixth grade with each other, sharing classes, joining the same clubs, and going on as they have been. In this case, however, the friends are twins–cautious Maureen and her more outgoing sister Francine. Twins joins the ranks of numerous middle grade graphic novels treating the topic of entering middle school and navigating new friendships.

Twins shannon wright