Twins

In this section, the narration of Maureen’s internal thoughts provides additional insight into her authentic mindset, especially when her spoken words contradict her true feelings. This pattern creates dramatic irony because the author has provided information that the other characters do not have access to. For example, when Maureen’s mom asks if she really wants to run for class president, she thinks “no” but says “yes,” implying that her reasons for running for president are less than ideal. At times, dramatic irony can create a humorous tone, but in this case, it highlights Maureen’s insecurities and inability to be honest about her desires and intentions.

Despite these setbacks, Maureen’s character undergoes some positive developments in this section. For example, she creates the idea for a buddy system to help sixth-graders adjust to middle school, and she enjoys the feeling of social support when other students agree that this idea would be helpful. Their swift agreement highlights the universality of The Challenges of Adolescence and Middle School, for it is clear that other students are navigating a range of challenges similar to Maureen’s, and they welcome creative solutions to mitigate these problems. As Maureen takes matters into her own hands rather than ignoring her problems, her self-confidence grows, and this is also demonstrated when she voluntarily overcomes her nervousness and approaches her crush, Bryce, to ask for help with her buddy system idea.

The Evolution of Sibling Relationships is further explored in this section, and the author and illustrator use several strategies to show that the girls still have some disagreements to resolve. For example, when Maureen moves into a separate bedroom, this development initially symbolizes the rift between the two girls, because their parents implement this change due to the girls’ arguments. However, over time, their separate bedrooms will come to symbolize The Search for Individual Identity as they develop the confidence to go in new directions. Continuing the approach of using larger drawings to emphasize key moments, the illustrator depicts the unpleasant distance between the girls in the full-page illustration at the beginning of Chapter 5. In this moment, the girls sit on two separate sides of a couch, looking away from each other with their arms crossed, and in an added touch of contrast, they are sitting beneath an old family photo in which they are smiling affectionately and are dressed identically. This image shows that the girls have drifted apart over time, but ultimately, this change is temporary, for growing pains can be a normal and even healthy part of the development process.

The illustrator also uses visual cues to indicate shifts in chronology, such as flashbacks. When Maureen recalls the scene in which the twins got their matching teddy bears from an amusement park, there is a black background behind the panels instead of a white background (119-20). Although the narration also indicates that this scene takes place years earlier, the visual cues deliver this information instantaneously, for the girls look younger in the pictures, the background adds an additional reminder that this scene is a brief detour from the straightforward chronology that dominates the rest of the book.

The illustrator also uses visual cues to indicate different tones used in dialogue. For example, she draws speech bubbles with jagged lines instead of smooth circles in order to indicate moments in which the characters are speaking angrily or intensely. This visual effect appears when the girls argue about moving bedrooms (118) or when a panicked Maureen wants to discuss campaign strategy with Richard and Amber (127). When Richard alerts Maureen and Amber about the vandalized poster, these same jagged lines are used (147), illustrating the anxiety that the vandalized poster causes for Maureen and her friends.

The illustrator sometimes depicts other texts in visual form, such as Maureen’s list of ideas about the buddy system and the vandalized campaign poster, to emphasize the importance of these texts. For example, Maureen’s list of ideas about the buddy system (132) shows that her concept is very strong, but it is also clear that she still hasn’t worked out all the details. The visual therefore illustrates the idea that solutions to problems do not always materialize immediately; instead, they can be the result of a long process of effort and thought. Similarly, the vandalized poster shows the cruelty and bullying that middle school students sometimes direct at each other, which is another challenge of adolescence and middle school. The poster also marks a setback for Maureen’s self-confidence, for although her campaign has helped her to make significant progress in this arena, she now has to face the challenge of widespread criticism, and the fallout from the vandalized poster causes her to doubt whether she would make a suitable class president.