Gotta Be Me! Fearless Mirabelle and Meg by Katie Haworth

Mirabelle and Meg Moffat are twins, and they look just the same.

But they are very different.

As soon as she could crawl, Mirabelle proved to be physically gifted--no surprise, since her parents were noted acrobats with the circus! She had perfect balance and agility and was soon climbing everything, from furniture to trees. She was a natural.

Meanwhile, Meg just made a whole lot of NOISE.

GAA GAA! GOO-GOO!

Her parents were proud of their daring daughter--Mirabelle.

Meanwhile, Meg was busy being a high communicator. She asked questions and talked about everything, from broccoli (She hated it) to books (She loved them!)

When the twins are old enough, Mother and Daddy Moffatt took the girls to work with them. Of course, their work was in the center ring of the circus, on the high wire and the trapeze. Mirabelle took right to the family business readily.

She did a backflip and cartwheeled across a tightrope seventeen times.

Meg is too terrified even to climb the ladder up to the trapeze.

Meg was afraid of heights!

And Meg fails at juggling and hits all the wrong notes at tuba-playing. What can she do?

Meanwhile Mirabelle is fast becoming a celebrity! But one day when Mirabelle is beset by a bunch of reporters, sticking microphones in her face and spouting rapid-fire questions at her. Mirabelle is not fearless--she's speechless and terrified. Suddenly, she hears a firm and fearless voice beside her, fielding all the press's questions with eloquence. It's her twin, Meg, doing what, for her, comes naturally!

It's a case of different strokes for different folks, in Katie Haworth's Fearless Mirabelle and Meg (Templar Books, 2019), a tale of twin sisters who look alike but are endowed with different but equally amazing abilities. Haworth's lively narrative points out that, while some talents emerge early and spectacularly, some are less obvious but just as necessary. Artist Nila Aye uses the big spaces on these big pages to portray the spectacle under the Big Top in lively line drawings that tell the story visually, in a salute to individuality and a plug for verbal skills.