Yeah. So Almost Identical is a series of four books that are about tween girls. Sammy and Charlie Diamond and they’re twins, they’re identical twins. But what they come to understand in the course of the books is even though they may look alike on the outside, everybody is unique on the inside, even identical twins. And the idea of at first, it actually came from reality.
My oldest son went to school starting in preschool with a set of identical twins and they scared him because they were so identical he would, in fact he used to call them the devil girls because he would look at one and talk to her and then he’d turn around and there the other one would be right there and he thought she was just over there, how did that happen? Because they were that identical. So as I watched these girls grow up, they differentiated themselves.
So it was very interesting to me to see how these two people with the same genetic makeup differentiated themselves, developed their own identities and so that was really the inspiration for that because I think what, what kids at that age are dealing with is identity so this, that series finds the girls as they’re going into seventh grade and as they’re starting a new school.
So this is their moment to do that and following in the footsteps of these real twins I know, one girl wants to identify with the kind of it crowd and the other wants to identify with a group that they call the truth tellers. They’re sort of a drama group and they’re improvisational and they express their true feelings and they of course as sisters bump into each other because the kids who are sort of the athletic jockey, you know, boy interested girls make fun of the kids who are more alternative and the other way around.
So it’s a way of exploring different – assuming different identities, experimenting with different identities and in the end they’re sisters and they love each other. So in the end, it was a good metaphor for people coming to understand that you can choose a different path and still love each other and not have to be critical of each other.
So – and I think that’s a really important thing for middle schoolers because once you start down the road, you have a clique of friends or a certain group of friends and you start to develop an identity that’s a pure identity, right, you’re part of this crowd or that crowd. And that’s fine, but first of all, you can be fluid. You can go from one to the other.
No person is just one thing and you don’t have to be critical of the other. Everyone is struggling. When you’re 11 and 12 and 13, everybody is struggling with identity. Nobody has it easy. We’re all searching to answer that question, who am I and where do I feel comfortable and what’s easy for me, where’s the best fit, and so those are the years that you experiment with that and those are the years where it’s most important to be non—bullying, non-judgmental and let people discover what path is best for them and let them change the path if they need to because you’re trying —
You know, it’s like you’re trying on different masks and you’re seeing where you fit in. So that’s what inspired that, and my experience in – I speak to schools a lot about that series and the kids really relate to those issues and they all recognize the social groups that, you know, that have formed and they all struggle with the notion of who am I and where do I fit in.
I think it’s universal at that age.
