Ruby and Garnet are ten-year-old twins. Identical. They do EVERYTHING
together, especially since their mother died three years earlier. But can being
a double act work for ever? When so much around them is
changing
關於作者:
JACQUELINE WILSON is an extremely well-known and hugely popular author. THE
ILLUSTRATED MUM was chosen as British Childrens Book of the Year in 1999 and
was winner of the Guardian Childrens Fiction Award 2000. Jacqueline has won the
prestigious Smarties Prize and the Childrens Book Award for DOUBLE ACT, which
was also highly commended for the Carnegie Medal. Jacqueline was awarded an OBE
in 2002.
* ''A brilliant young writer of wit and subtlety'' THE TIMES
* ''Hugely popular with seven to ten year olds: she should be prescribed for
all cases of reading reluctance'' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
* ''Has a rare gift for writing lightly and amusingly about emtional issues''
BOOKSELLER
內容試閱:
We''re twins. I''m Ruby. She''s Garnet.
We''re identical. There''s very few
people who can -tell us apart. Well, until we start talking. I tend to go on and
on. Garnet is much quieter
That''s ~ because I can''t get a word in
edgeways.
We are exactly the same height and weight. I eat a bit more
than Garnet. I love candy, and I like salty things too. I once ate thirteen bags
of potato chips in one day. All salt-and-vinegar flavor. I love lots of salt and
vinegar on french fries too. French-fried potatoes are my special weakness. I go
munch munch munch gulp and they''re gone. So then I have to scarf some of
Garnet''s. She doesn''t mind.
Yes I do.
I don''t get fatter because I
run around more. I hate sitting still. Garnet will sit hunched over a book for
hours, but I get the fidgets. We''re both good at running, Garnet and me. At our
last intramural sports day at school we beat everyone, even the boys. We came in
first. Well, I did, actually. Garnet came in second. But that''s not surprising,
seeing that I''m the oldest. We''re both ten. But I''m twenty minutes older. I was
the bossy baby who pushed out first. Garnet came second.
We live with our
dad and our grandmother.
Dad often can''t tell us apart in the morning at
breakfast, but then his eyes aren''t always quite open. He just swallows black
coffee as he jumps into his clothes and then dashes off for his train. Dad works
in an office in London and he hates it. He''s always tired out when he gets home.
But he can tell us apart by then. It''s easier in the evening. My braids are
generally coming undone and my T-shirt''s probably stained. Garnet stays as neat
as a pin.
That''s what our grandmother says. Gran always used to have pins
stuck all down the front of her cardigan. We had to be very careful when we
hugged her. Sometimes she even had pins sticking out of her mouth. That was when
she did her dressmaking. She used to work in this exclusive boutique, pinning
and tucking and sewing all day long. Then, after ...
Well, Gran had to
look after us, you see, so she did dressmaking at home. For private customers.
Mostly very large ladies who wanted the latest fashions. Garnet and I always got
the giggles when we peeped at them in their underwear.
Gran made all our
clothes too. That was awfuL It-was bad enough Gran being old-fashioned and
making us have our hair in braids. But our clothes made us a laughingstock at
school, though some of the mothers said we looked a perfect picture.
We
had frilly dresses in summer and dinky pleated skirts in winter, and di-an
knitted tooangora boleros that -made us itch, and matching sweaters and
cardigans for the cold. Twinsets. And a very silly set of twins we looked
too.
But then Gran''s arthritis got worse. She''d always had funny fingers
and a bad hip and a trick knee. But soon she got so she''d screw up her face when
she got up or sat down, and her fingers swelled sideways and she couldn''t make
them work.
She can''t do her dressmaking now. It''s a shame, because she
loved doing it so much. But there''s one Amazing Advantage. We get to wear
store-bought clothes now. And because Gran can''t really make it on the bus into
town, we get to choose.
Well ... Ruby gets to choose.
I choose for
both of us. T-shirts. Ilights. Jeans. Matching ones, of course. We still want to
look alike. We just want to look normal