Twin Birthday planning is hard!
Mac & Madi’s Surprise: A Very Different Twins Birthday is a joy to read on many levels. Parents of twins will love reading it to their twins, and the twins will enjoy having it read to them. Linda Herron’s story is adorable, while the illustrations by Marie Delon are simply beautiful. Though it doesn’t truly matter if your family has multiples or singletons, all will love this book, it is important to have books about twins getting published. The world has a growing number of twins. So, it’s important that they have stories to read, or have read to them, that allows them to empathize with characters of the stories.
Mac & Madi do that.
Twins, or greater numbers of multiples, are people like the rest of us. However, they experience some things differently than other children. They share clothes, which is different than hand-me-downs. Toys? Also shared. They share everything. Yes, siblings share too, but they get the benefit of having many things to themselves. They’re different ages, so they’re different developmentally. They share parents, true, but their parents don’t have to juggle them the same way as twins. When siblings are singletons, they’re not always in diapers at the same time or going to kindergarten for the first time with a brother or sister, and so on. Twins reach every stage together, at the same time. Herron shows both how twins are different than other kids, but also how they’re just like everyone else, all in one cute story.
For a twin, sharing is their norm. However, the one thing that I think, as a parent of twins, twins do notice is that they have to share their birthday party. Twins love each other, but they want their individuality as well. Seeing that come across in this book will let any twin out there identify with these characters and love them all the more.
As a parent of twins, I love this book. It’s real. “Twin birthday parties usually have 1 theme, 1 cake, 1 outfit.” I’ve been there. I’ve orchestrated that party. Like Mac & Madi’s parents, I’ve also tried to shake things up, as well. Not that I want to give away the “Surprise” completely, but twins deserve individuality. They deserve things that are their own. I often do 2 cakes, when that 1 theme allows for it. Beyond birthday parties, I also decorated my twins’ bedrooms completely different based on things each liked. Separate identities after all. (Then, they ended up staying in the same room anyway.) Reading Mac & Madi’s Birthday Surprise, you see the writer has been there and knows the constant juxtaposition twins go through where they want their own identity but also don’t want to be away from their “wombmate”.
This book shows that twin love so simply and perfectly. However you take this book in, whether reading it or being in an audience and having it read to you, you’ll love it.
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