It’s a Twin Thing: The Break Up by Kristin Darrell

Title: It’s a Twin Thing: The Break Up

Author: Kristin Darrell

Genre: Contemporary

Publisher: Penguin Australia

Published: 3^rd February 2026

Format: Paperback

Pages: 208

Price: $14.99

Synopsis: Being a twin is forever, but for Abigail and Brooklyn, starting grade five is about to test their bond in ways they never expected.
Book one in a fun, warm-hearted series from bestselling author – and twin – Kristin Darell.

Identical twins Abi and Brook are inseparable. They’ve always been in the same class; they dance together; they’re in a rock band together; they even have the same best friend.

But for the first time, they’ve been put in different classes at school and everything they think they know about each other is put to the test. Can Abi and Brook find a way to accept the changes in themselves and each other? And can they pull together in time to play in the school talent show?

~*~

Abi and Brook are twins, and they’re about to start Year Five. They’ve always done everything together. Dance, the band, school. They’re always ‘the twins’. A collective identity, one that everyone sees as who they are. Until this year. Now they’re in different classes, rook is being chosen for things over Abi, and Abi feels left out, like people are choosing Brook over her, like the things she’s worked hard for, or wants are being given to Brook. And Brook seems to be making new friends and fitting in well, oblivious to how her twin is feeling.

Is Brook feeling the same way? She seems so engaged with the new things at school like the Talent Show, leaving Abi out and constantly criticising Abi at band. They’re sisters, but they each have their own likes and dislikes. And this seems to be the year that they are going to find out who they are as individuals, not just ‘the twins’. Both girls are grappling with the changes in their lives, and both seem unaware that the other is hurting, or oblivious to how they might have acted. And as siblings, as twins, working things out on your own when you have been a team your whole life is hard. But they have made it work, and now they are onto the challenge of finding out who they are in this new series. As sisters, as twins, and as themselves.

Kristin Darrell’s new series about Abi and Brook looks at the challenges, the ups and the downs of growing up and being a twin. As a twin herself, Kristin has drawn on these experiences to write the series and bring Abi and Brook’s world to life. It gives it a feeling of authenticity and a genuine voice that speaks to what it must be like to be seen as a single entity when you’re a twin. And the sibling rivalry will be recognisable to anyone with a sibling, whether that sibling is a twin or not! It’s a great book about growing up and finding your way, about realising that everyone has their own interests, has their own flaws and not everyone is going to realise when they’ve upset someone or know how to express how they are feeling. These things take time, even as a grown up. So it’s important that middle grade books explore this too. Especially in the messy tween years when things definitely start changing.

Twins have been part of stories, series and had their own stories for ages. Sweet Valley High twins. The twins Mallory babysat in the Babysitters Club. The Bobbsey twins. If you’re going into darker young adult territory, the Gutmunsson twins in None Shall Sleep, one of my favourite young adult crime trilogies. Whoever these twins are in books, TV and film (who could forget Annie James and Hallie Parker?), it is clear that stories about them have been intriguing people for a long time. There are probably so many twins I forgot too.  But this is the twin series for kids these days. The new one, the one that I hope will capture the joys and the frustrations of growing up in so many ways for younger readers. Because seeing yourself in fiction is a powerful thing. It means you have something to relate to.

And Kristin Darrell’s new series sits amongst these stories as the latest in twin awesomeness. I loved it, because it was so cool to see these two very distinct personalities come to life on the page, who had things in common and things they did together, but also had so much in common. Abi and Brook are fun characters that younger readers will enjoy meeting and getting to know throughout the series. I really hope this series flies, because it has everything I think kids and their parents will love. A bit of nostalgia for similar reads for parents, and it’s wonderfully up to date and relevant for younger readers as well. It’s one of those books with fun and whimsy, a touch of seriousness and oodles of emotion that will have readers laughing, crying, cheering and like me, wishing and waiting eagerly for the characters to resolve things.