Ling and Ting Twice as Silly

Title: Ling and Ting Twice as Silly

Author & Illustrator: Grace Lin

Publisher: Little Brown and Company

Year: 2014

ISBN: 978-0-316-18402-1

Summary: Ling and Ting are identical twins who laugh and play and have fun together. Ting is silly and Ling is practical. The first four chapters set up the last one in which the girls write a story about themselves. In that story Ling and Ting are bunnies who want to pick cupcakes from the top of a cupcake tree. They use a lucky red toy to hop high, but they jump so high that they go into outer space. Then they have to eat the stars which are really jelly beans in order to get heavy enough to fall back to Earth. On their way down, they pick some cupcakes from the tree and eat them for dessert.

Literary Merit: Simple language and sentence structure make this book easy to read for beginning independent readers. The story is divided into five short chapters which make the length of the book accessible to emerging readers.

Kid Appeal: Many children are intrigued by twins. Figuring out which is which is half the fun. And combining all the previous chapters to write a story in the last chapter is a clever use of ordinary daily events with which young readers can identify.

Disclaimer: This book was nominated for the 2015 CYBILS Award in the Easy Reader category. This review is shared as part of the Round One Judging. It is solely my own opinion and not influenced by any other parties.