For Ages
8 to 12

Kate DiCamillo meets Lemony Snicket in this darkly comic novel about two sisters who learn they are each others' most important friend!

Imagine two twin sisters, Arabella and Henrietta--nearly identical yet with nothing in common. They're the best of friends . . . until one day they aren't. Plain and quiet Henrietta has a secret plan to settle the score, and she does something outrageous and she can't take it back.
 
When the deed is discovered, Henrietta is sent to live with her eccentric great-aunt! Suddenly life with pretty, popular Arabella doesn't seem so awful.
 
And, though she's been grievously wronged, Arabella longs for her sister, too. So she hatches a plan of her own and embarks on an unexpected journey to reunite with her other half.

An Excerpt fromThe Trouble with Twins

And so it begins in front of the fire, the story of two twin sisters. One remains with her family in their lovely country house, where yellow roses perfume the air. The other waits for her in another house, where she stands alone at huge arched windows. She is restless, pacing wooden floors that creak in the night when a cat jumps down from the bed to chase at shadows.

“What are their names?” the girl asks. “The sisters.” “Arabella and Henrietta.”
“Are they lonely?” asks the girl.
“They belong together,” says the mother. “And it makes them sad to be apart.”
“Can’t you tell a happy story?” the girl asks.
“With puppies and a garden?”
“Yes!” says the girl.

“I’m only telling it the way my mother told it to me,” the mother says.
“And will there be puppies?” the girl persists. “Or only gloomy girls at windows?”
“Well, their dog, Muffin, wasn’t exactly a puppy, but she was very small. And, there was a beautiful garden. I can picture it perfectly.