What an absolutely delightful read! Brandy Colbert’s take on "The Parent Trap" story is full of unique ideas for why the girls were split up, how they learn about one another, and the schemes that they cook up together. Kenya and Liberty were both incredibly fleshed out characters, it was so interesting to see how each of them reacted to finding out they had a sister and learning their full family backstory. I loved the explorations of how families can take different shapes.

In addition to the twin/family storyline, there’s a lot of interesting stuff going on with them starting middle school, making friends, and having crushes. Overall I think this is just a stellar middle grade title. I’d definitely recommend it to readers who enjoy contemporary MG stories with an emphasis on family. But I also think it could be fun for anyone who is a fan of the different "Parent Trap" iterations and is interested in seeing that story star two Black girls.

I enjoyed this! It did a great job of calling back to the original Parent Trap while providing a new spin (and consequently a new look) on the situation. All the relationships - between family members, friends, and the twins themselves - were fleshed out and complicated in a way that felt real. The relationship Liberty had with Joey especially stood out: Liberty is feeling safe and loved in a home for the first time in her memory, and suddenly that is something she might have to leave too, even though it would be for the family she had lost. I loved the way the twins came to know and care for each other, and how their respective people accepted both of them. The backstory behind their separation and their mother was also treated with kindness in a way that did not hide anything from the girls (or the book's young readers), and I thought that was done very well. On a lighter note, I thought Kenya and Liberty's plan to get Liberty's foster mother to get together with their father was a delightful spin on The Parent Trap that made a lot of sense!

What a masterclass in writing character! I was completely invested in these girls and their journey toward family from the start and it kept building throughout the story. I literally could not put it down and read it in one sitting. Middle grade readers will be riveted. Highly recommend!

I really enjoyed reading this one. I thought it was going to be kind of parent trappy, and it was similar in some ways, but it really had it's own story line.
Kenya and Liberty don't know what to do when they start school together and are seeing someone with their face in the halls. They get in a fight at the mixer, which then leads to their parents getting involved and they learn more about their story.
Liberty has been in foster care as long as she can remember and to find her family now gives her mixed emotions. I can understand why she has mixed emotions because she has finally found a family where she feels at home and doesn't know how she fits into her family.
Kenya loves the attention she has always received but with Liberty she is afraid people will forget her.
The girls work hard to move past all of this and create friendship.

A good middle grade book about finding family.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC.

Brandy Colbert takes on "The Parent Trap"? Yes please.

In "Let's Get Together", everyone's favorite secret-twins movie takes on a modern twist. For Kenya, starting grade 6 is just another move in the right direction. She has a happy life with her father and grandmother, and she sees no reason for a new direction. But for Liberty, things are more complicated—she's in the best foster home she's ever had, but her entire living memory is nothing but uncertainty. And Kenya is the biggest uncertainty she's seen in a while—because although Kenya and Liberty have never met before, they're mirror images of each other.

Although this is based on "The Parent Trap", in some (limited) ways "It Takes Two" is a more direct comparison—in "The Parent Trap" (and yes, you'd better believe that I've seen the 1998 and the 1961 versions, and also read the original "Das doppelte Lottchen"), the girls are both happy in their single-child-of-a-single-parent lives, not a little spoiled (especially in the film versions), and in their predicament because their parents willingly split them up. "It Takes Two" mixes it up with doppelgängers rather than twins, and with one girl living in a truly miserable foster care situation. (Man was that movie terrible, and also man did I love it. I wonder whether the library has a copy...?)

Colbert delivers a more realistic take: without spoiling the "how" of the split, I'll say that the reason the girls were split up is, you know, not a case of the parents dividing the assets. And although Liberty has had her fair share of rough foster placements—the book doesn't go into details, and it doesn't need to—she's finally in a good one, one that feels like it could be the real thing...until her world is turned upside down. Again. Now, I've read enough about foster care (although not specifically in a California context) to question some of the details of the book; as far as I know, some of the plot points (like Liberty's foster mother and biological father being able to decide Liberty's medical care) are...very unlikely...but then, this is a middle-grade book and I don't think those details need to be pitch perfect to work. I love how readily Liberty and Kenya take to being sisters—they're cautious (Kenya in particular has to get used to sharing her space), but they want it to work, so (well, for the most part) they try to reach out and put themselves in the other's shoes. I also like that things don't work out exactly as the girls plan—again, no spoilers, but there's another twist of a sort at the end, and it keeps things interesting.

A good one for middle-grade readers...but also for those of us adults who grew up on lost-twin stories and love a fresh take.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

This was a really sweet Parent Trap re-do! The explanation for splitting up twins never works for me, but at least this one tried to make sense of it in a way that felt understandable.

This was an amazing read and wonderful retelling of the parent trap. I love that it gave an actual and realistic reasoning behind the split of the twins rather than each parent taking one child of their own. I cannot wait to recommend this to all of my middle grade readers once it is published.