Twins vs. Triplets: Back-to-school blitz by Jennifer Torres, illustrated by Vanessa Flores

 David tries his best to avoid the mean Romero twins; They’re disliked throughout the neighborhood for their nasty pranks and he’s relieved to have avoided their messy “joke” on his first day of school. He’s really looking forward to this year, because his parents have talked to the principal and agreed that he will never be in a class with the twins! He can concentrate on his friendly rivalry with his best friend and competitor for the title of Captain of the Geography Club, Edith DeCastro.

But when he shows up to school, he finds out that there are three new kids - and these are triplets! Not only that, they’re just like the twins, and soon an all-out prank war is spoiling everyone’s fun on the playground. To his dismay, David gets picked to be the monitor and make sure everyone behave - will everyone learn to get along, or will the Romero Twins and Benitez twins get them kicked off the playground for good?

This was a typical HarperChapters book, with little goalposts in each chapter to encourage readers to keep going. It’s got a few fun activities in the back and the story is light and funny. I was especially excited to see so many Latino kids featured, and with a wide variety of skin colors and hair textures. However, I have to admit that, as an adult, I really disliked the whole plot of the book. I personally dislike pranks and these were especially mean-spirited - but even though they were doing things like dumping slime on David every year when he walks out the door, nobody ever talks to their parents or even tells them to stop. David gets stuck in the middle at school, with little to no adult backup. Although he does eventually resolve the situation, with the help of Edith and other friends, from an adult standpoint it’s a frustrating story.

Verdict: My adult dislike aside, it’s a funny story with a diverse portrayal of many different Latino cultures and individual personalities, which is worth it to me to purchase and promote. This new series definitely fills a gap in collections and most public libraries will want to purchase it.

ISBN: 9780063059443; Published June 2021 by HarperCollins; Borrowed from another library in my consortium