growing up – BookBunnies

Marshmallow reviews Almost Identical by Lin Oliver

Today Marshmallow reviews Almost Identical, the 2012 book by Lin Oliver that starts the eponymous four-book series. This book series was recommended to the book bunnies by a reader of the blog: thank you, you-know-who-you-are!

Marshmallow’s Quick Take: If you like sweet stories that surprise you with their depth and potential significance to your own life, then this is the book for you!

Marshmallow’s Summary (with Spoilers): Sammie and Charlie Diamond are identical twins. Though their names might not sound like it, they are both twelve year old girls (twelve years and three quarters to be exact!) Being identical twins, they’ve done everything together since birth. They are extremely good tennis players and compete constantly in doubles leagues. This is mostly due to their father’s desire to live somewhat vicariously through their success. He was set to become a professional player but was injured in a game and had to have a career-ending surgery. Now, he works as the athletic director at the Sporty Forty beach club in Santa Monica teaching tennis and supervising things in general.

Luckily, the family and GoGo (the girls’ grandmother) are allowed to live in the old caretaker’s beautiful bungalow for free by the beach. Unluckily, Sammie and Charlie’s mother is off in Boston at culinary school so she can start up a restaurant when she comes back. That means Sammie and Charlie are on their own to deal with their annoying older brother Ryan. They have plenty to worry about besides him though. Moving from Culver City Middle School to the more affluent Beachside Middle School is a bit of a jarring change.

One girl in particular–Lauren Wadsworth–is so rich and famous and smart and beautiful (allegedly) that they had heard about her before moving. The cool kids / jocks call themselves the SF2s because they are the second generation of the owners of the Sporty Forty (which is owned by several very wealthy families). Sammie and Charlie meet Lauren before school starts though as she is hosting her birthday party at the club; because she has a crush on Ryan, Lauren eventually invites all three of the Diamond children to the event.

This is the start of the end for Sammie. Before all of this, she was already being essentially attacked by her father and brother for being ‘too heavy.’ At the party, she is reminded yet again that she does not fit in as well as Charlie. Charlie is desperate to get in with the in-group and she does well, especially since Lauren can’t wait to get closer to the Diamond family (though she is mostly interested in a specific annoying eighth grade boy…cough, cough, Ryan).

Basically, Charlie fits in. Sammie, on the other hand, does not. She is uncomfortable around the girls and feels like she has to constantly be putting on a fake performance to hang around them. When she leaves to play Frisbee with the boys on the beach, she is quickly told that Charlie is “the hot version of you.” This feeling of growing alienation between Sammie and the SF2s and Charlie remains long after the party is over. Sammie feels most comfortable with the ‘weird’er kids, like Alicia whom she meets at the party. After immigrating from El Salvador at the age of three, Alicia’s family is integrated into the club in a different way from most of the party guests. Her mother works essentially as a maid while her father is the groundskeeper. She is similarly an outsider and the two girls click.

The only thing is that Sammie and Charlie no longer do. Like it says on the book’s cover, they are “growing up and growing apart.” Charlie is doing pretty well for herself in the cliquey SF2 group while Sammie is starting to embrace her more authentic, unique identity at a school club called the Truth Tellers (where students practice and perform stand-up speaking intended to reveal personal stories to the audience in a meaningful way). The two girls were always “two halves of a circle” but change is the only constant. Within three weeks, Sammie and Charlie slowly realize that they are more different than they thought; with new, growing identities, they are no longer almost identical.

Marshmallow is reading Almost Identical by Lin Oliver. — Marshmallow is reading *Almost Identical* by Lin Oliver.

Marshmallow’s Review: Almost Identical is so very well done! I think the author deserves a round of applause for handling a relatively overused trope with new nuance and depth. This was the first time I read a book about siblings or best friends growing apart in different directions and I felt like it was truly a detailed account of the storyline. Oftentimes, pre-teen books or teen books about growing up and change in middle school have to resort to the typical Mean Girls level of characterizing certain cliques. This book did also have the SF2s, which are somewhat similar. However, it felt a lot more realistic and less cartoonish. I really liked the Mean Girls movie, but Oliver’s novel is a lot more grounded in reality and speaks more to the true middle school experience than most other, more exaggerated accounts do.

Sammie is a very impressive young girl and seeing things from her lens is both heartbreaking and heartwarming. She definitely suffers a lot from body shaming as her father is determined to make her into the best possible tennis player. He believes she is too heavy and that her weight is slowing her down, despite the fact that she is not really overweight in the first place. Her brother joins in unhelpfully in the worst possible situations and his girlfriend-to-be a.k.a. Lauren soon follows suit. Within the first chapter, you develop a deep sympathy for Sammie and she is a very likeable protagonist.

I think the author was very smart to start the book the way she did as it curries favor with the reader to like Sammie almost instantly. This book–as it is told by her–portrays Sammie as the morally correct, wiser of the twins. However, Charlie’s growth is also portrayed in a relatively nonjudgmental light at the end. I really liked how the rapidly expanding rift between them is eventually accepted as separate paths that will define them as different people. This was handled in a very soft, beautiful way.

I feel like this story of struggling, navigating, and then willing letting yourself be taken by change is relevant to more than just middle schoolers. As a high schooler realizing that things are changing and will continue to change a lot more, I found this story very comforting. It gave me a sense of clarity that, despite continual change and occasional chaos, impermanence can lead to new places, perspectives, and people you had never considered before. That is a lesson I think we can all benefit from.

Given its accessible and entertaining prose, I think Almost Identical is a very sweet story that would be amazing for all bunnies. Of course, it is most important for pre-teens and teens to read about situations that most closely align with their own experiences. But adults shouldn’t scoff at the idea of reading this book either! Caramel and I aren’t twins, but I hope he reads this book too. Change is an undeniable, unyielding force in our universe, and reading these seemingly small works of human art can serve as a tether to what grounds us as the world seems to transform around us.

I would like to especially thank the reader who recommended that we read this book! Even though the author finishes this book in a satisfying manner, I look forward to reading the next book of this series!

Marshmallow’s Rating: 100%.

Marshmallow rates Almost Identical by Lin Oliver 100%. — Marshmallow rates *Almost Identical* by Lin Oliver 100%.

Marshmallow reviews The Color of Water by James McBride

Today Marshmallow is writing about The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother, written by James McBride and first published in 1995.

Marshmallow reviews The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride. — Marshmallow reviews *The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother* by James McBride.

Marshmallow’s Quick Take: If you like biographies that reveal nuanced stories about race, family, identity, and love, then this is the book for you!

Marshmallow’s Summary (with Spoilers): James McBride is a Black man with a White mother. Today, this would likely not be considered much of a big deal. After all, mixed race marriages are something relatively commonplace in the United States today and are the simple result of the fact that love generally does not see color. However, back in the 1960s, such relationships were demonized and the pair separated by all means possible; Loving v. Virginia, the landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court on interracial marriage was only passed in 1967.

For James’ mother Ruth, this was yet another struggle in a long, seemingly endless line of strife. She was born in America to two Polish Jews and, due to the fact that her father was a “lousy rabbi,” her family had to keep moving to find new places of work for him. Eventually, they settled down in Suffolk, Virginia. There, Ruth felt discrimination firsthand constantly, with classmates calling her “Jew baby” or worse. But she also witnessed the overt racism directed towards Black people around her. Her first boyfriend, Peter, was a Black man and the young couple kept their relationship a secret out of fear of the KKK. Ruth also faced consistent abuse at home from a father that emotionally, physically, and sexually tormented her; yet, despite all of this, she persevered quietly and eventually built a family. She then kept rebuilding every time she was torn down.

In The Color of Water, the author James McBride tells the story of Ruth’s life intertwined with segments of his own autobiography in between. McBride describes his chaotic environment growing up as the eighth child out of twelve total. While he knew he was loved, there was unending pressure from Ruth to be academically successful, and within such a large family, there was not enough attention to go around. As James grew older, he started recognizing that his mother’s race was different from his own and that race was a construct that society unfortunately valued in countless ways. In seeking to uncover the details of his mother’s life, James simultaneously searches for his own identity and the role that race has in America. This likely won’t come as a surprise to anyone, but the answer is nuanced and riddled with mystery—much like Ruth herself.

Marshmallow is reading The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride. — Marshmallow is reading *The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother* by James McBride.

Marshmallow’s Review: I found The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother to be a very interesting book. As a mixed race bunny growing up in a quite mixed neighborhood and school district, I have never really felt any need to ‘discover myself’ because I already knew what I was. However, James’ identity quest is understandable, especially because race was even more central to society in those times. Today, of course, race is still an issue, but seeing the way our nation was back then gives you a better sense of the role of race over time.

The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother examines race on a national scale by specifically analyzing its role within a family setting. James’ story is rather unique, but the themes throughout the book (abuse, race, search for security, selflessness, grief, etc) are representative of the general human experience in certain ways. I think the fact that his life is sort of a more extreme version of general experiences helps highlight how remarkable the people in his life—and most people in general—are.

The book is relatively easy to read and I think the author wrote it for a broad audience. There are mentions of sexual abuse, drug use, and violence, so some parts might make this better for older readers (maybe twelve and older?) But overall, The Color of Water is a very important book that reveals simple truths about love, humanity, and America—such as the obvious fact that race should never dictate anything, especially love.

Marshmallow’s Rating: 100%.

Marshmallow rates The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride 100%. — Marshmallow rates *The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother* by James McBride 100%.

Marshmallow reviews The Good Mother Test by Michael R. French

Today Marshmallow is reviewing The Good Mother Test by Michael R. French, published in 2026. The book bunnies are delighted to be reviewing this book as part of a Blog Tour for The Good Mother Test organized by WOW! Women On Writing.

Marshmallow’s Quick Take: If you like books about family, love, and mother-daughter relationships, then this is the book for you!

Marshmallow’s Summary (with Spoilers): Emily loses her house to the bank when she is eighteen. Her family is forced out, but not before she sort of attacks one of the people foreclosing on her home. Yet, she recovers and succeeds academically, refusing to let that loss stop her from becoming great. At her new high school, she meets Salina, who becomes her best friend. After graduation, the two go their separate ways but remain in each other’s lives. Salina works at a plant nursery and Emily takes a gap year, planning to start her freshman year at UCLA on a scholarship after. During her gap year, Emily gets a job working as an assistant at a company doing work she finds fascinating; as a result, she excels.

If it feels like I am speeding through these parts, it is because the turning point of the story happens once Emily starts UCLA. She eventually reconnects with her former boss and that changes their relationship status to a romantic nature. Unfortunately, they make a mistake and Emily ends up pregnant. They are delighted by the idea of a child, but Doug (the father) ends up feeling like Emily isn’t right for him. He takes good care of her during the pregnancy and makes sure she is supported after, but he leaves Emily to shoulder parenting mostly by herself. Emily—who had been feeling directionless—finds purpose in her ‘career’ as a mother. Their daughter Violet becomes her whole life.

As Violet grows, it becomes clear that she is a prodigy and Emily does everything she can to provide for her, physically, emotionally, and intellectually. Doug re-enters their lives when Violet is relatively young and introduces his new girlfriend Amanda. Emily is immediately threatened as Amanda and Doug start to play larger and larger roles in Violet’s life. Amanda does seem rather benevolent in a way. She pays for clothes, education, and everything else Violet might need. Yet, something within Emily recognizes Amanda as a threat. Emily wants to be the best mother she can be, but how can she compete with someone who has everything?

Marshmallow is reading The Good Mother Test by Michael R. French. — Marshmallow is reading *The Good Mother Test* by Michael R. French.

Marshmallow’s Review: I found The Good Mother Test to be a very touching yet simultaneously strange book. The plot is very good and the story meaningful. I found the emotional connections and developments were very well developed. However, I did find certain lines throughout the book to be a bit off-putting. There were never any parts that were very disconcerting, but towards the beginning I found the characterization and treatment of a couple characters to be a bit bizarre. For example, Salina seemed sort of like a token who was treated and talked to in ways that weren’t right for a best friend. This problem was resolved very soon and other similar issues disappeared half way through the book. However, the book didn’t seem to recognize that some of these things were problems.

I found it interesting that all romantic relationships were devoid of emotion. The two main protagonists, Emily and Violet, are very detached from the men they are involved with. Speaking of which, intimacy is mentioned occasionally in a way that is more suitable for readers older than sixteen. The author luckily does not describe anything too inappropriate except for one time that was shocking to me when I read it.

The word I would use to describe this book is honesty. It feels as though it is written by a real person who went through a real story like this one. The author definitely deserves recognition for writing a book about motherhood while being a father. The style was starkly different from other fiction books I’ve read, more realistic and less focused on flowing rhetoric. This makes the world seem more grounded.

One thing that made it a bit difficult for me to relate to the characters in The Good Mother Test was the level of wealth they enjoyed. Amanda is incredibly rich and Violet, as a genius, eventually makes a ton of money on her own. As a result, they do a lot of things that are very difficult for most people to do. Jewelry, clothing, and lavish items are mentioned in almost every chapter. This was unusual (I am not sure how realistic their lifestyles are), but negligible.

Overall, I would recommend The Good Mother Test especially to mothers and daughters who are old enough to understand it and absorb its message. It is a very heartfelt book dedicated to the bond between mother and child, and reading this makes one realize just how beautiful that bond is.

Marshmallow’s Review: 97%.

Marshmallow rates The Good Mother Test by Michael R. French 97%. — Marshmallow rates *The Good Mother Test* by Michael R. French 97%.

Caramel reviews Kiki’s Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono

Today Caramel reviews Kiki’s Delivery Service, originally written in Japanese by Eiko Kadono in 1985. Kiki’s story became a world sensation when the animated movie Kiki’s Delivery Service by Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli came out in 1989. Caramel and Sprinkles both read the book before watching the movie, and in this post, they are talking about the English translation by Emily Balistrieri, published originally in 2020.

Caramel reviews Kiki's Delivery Service, written by Eiko Kadono and translated into English by Emily Balistrieri. — Caramel reviews *Kiki’s Delivery Service*, written by Eiko Kadono and translated into English by Emily Balistrieri.

Sprinkles: Today Caramel and I are talking about a book written several decades before he was born. And an animated movie of the book also became famous all the way back then. But Caramel and I only read it this year. The story is pretty timeless though, so I think it still worked out well. What do you think, Caramel?

Caramel: Yeah, I agree. The story is timeless, and it is pretty good. It’s about a witch. In this world witches are nice, and at thirteen they need to leave home and go to a new town and help the people there.

S: Okay, that’s cool, I like that witches are nice. And I like growing-up-and-figuring-yourself-out stories. So I’m guessing that this book is about a witch named Kiki, and she starts a delivery service in a new town?

C: Yes, that’s almost exactly what happens. When Kiki turns thirteen, she needs to leave her home. Her mom is also a witch and both her parents are very supportive of what she has to do. So she leaves home and flies to a town near the ocean.

S: Wait! She literally flies?

C: Yes, on her broomstick!

S: Cool! So she is a broomstick witch. Okay go on.

C: So in this new town, Kiki begins to live with a farm family. She then sets up shop in their barn and gets a telephone, and she starts her delivery service there.

S: So she begins to deliver things to people using her broomstick, like courier services provided by people on mopeds?

C: Yeah, she delivers small things. Toy cats, real cats, children, bread, things like that.

S: Wait, she delivers children?

C: Yeah, no, that’s a joke. But she delivers all kinds of other stuff. And she has a talking cat named Jiji who always comes along.

Caramel is reading Kiki's Delivery Service, written by Eiko Kadono and translated into English by Emily Balistrieri. — Caramel is reading *Kiki’s Delivery Service*, written by Eiko Kadono and translated into English by Emily Balistrieri.

S: Oh, that sounds really cool. Wouldn’t you like to have a talking cat?

C: Maybe. I think it could be fun. But these witches sure like names that repeat a syllable. Ki-ki and Ji-ji.

S: Both names sound cute though, right?

C: Sure-sure; see I did the same thing?

S: You are in a good mood today Caramel! Okay, let us get back to the book. So did you know that the author who wrote this book wrote eight more following the adventures of Kiki?

C: Really, are they translated yet? This book was pretty good so I’d definitely like to read at least some of the followup books.

S: I don’t think any of them is translated yet. But you’re right. The story sounds really cute.

C: Yeah, it’s a nice calm book. Nothing really bad happens, and Kiki feels lonely at the beginning and faces some challenges, but nothing too scary, and she eventually finds her footing. All young bunnies could enjoy it, I think.

S: Agreed. Did you know that the animated version of the book was what made it so famous? The movie was made all the way back in 1989 and it is still well liked by many around the world.

C: Huh, that’s cool, I didn’t know that.

S: Yeah, it was made by Hayao Miyazaki, from Studio Ghibli. Do you remember them? They are the people who made My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Spirited Away (2001), and The Boy and the Heron (2023).

C: Oh yeah, I do think we saw the trailer for Kiki before we watched The Boy and the Heron, and that was one weird movie! But I think Marshmallow liked My Neighbor Totoro.

S: I did not see that one but yes, The Boy and the Heron was a very different type of movie. I think it would be neat to see the movie about Kiki, too.

C: Yes! Maybe we can put in a link for the trailer?

S: Sure. Here it is:

C: Thank you. Maybe we can find a way to watch the full movie too.

S: Yes, I think that would be lovely! Do you think this is a good time to wrap up this review?

C: Yes, I think so.

S: Okay, then, what would you like to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews! And merry Christmas to all who celebrate!

Caramel enjoyed reading Kiki's Delivery Service, written by Eiko Kadono and translated into English by Emily Balistrieri, and is eager to see the movie itself next. — Caramel enjoyed reading *Kiki’s Delivery Service*, written by Eiko Kadono and translated into English by Emily Balistrieri, and is eager to see the movie itself next.