The first book saw the girls having haircuts, cooking dumplings, and practicing with chopsticks, but this second one focuses on all the usual activities associated with having a birthday. This new book about identical twins Ling and Ting is a companion to 2010’s Geisel Award winning Ling and Ting Not Exactly the Same. Recommended to beginning readers looking for entertaining titles, as well as to any fans of these characters' first book. The artwork, done in gouache on watercolor paper, and inspired by 1950s children's textbook illustrations, was colorful and appealing.

I got a chuckle out of the second story, in which Ling and Ting buy one another birthday gifts, each selecting something they themselves want, in the hopes that their twin will share it with them. With its heartwarming tale of two siblings who share (almost) everything, and its charming stylized illustrations, Ling and Ting Share a Birthday is a worthy follow-up to the first volume about these two sisters. In the end, both are glad to share a birthday with the other. Whether it be exchanging the shoes given to them as birthday presents, so that they each have one red and one green shoes, or splitting the cake made by Ling, when Ting's effort in that vein proves unsuccessful, these sisters share a close and loving bond, despite their small differences. Ling and Ting, the twin sisters who first appeared in Ling & Ting: Not Exactly the Same!, return in this second collection of stories devoted to their adventures, this time experiencing the many joys of their shared birthday.

Ling & ting share a birthday