YA book about empathy focused on two sisters's relationship: one is very kind and popular and the other thinks she is inferior to her sister. Read in the late 90s.

[Amanda]

I read this book as a teen in Brazilian Portuguese in the late 90s, but I'm sure the original is in English due to the setting - I'm not sure of the time period, maybe early 1900s judging by the clothes mentioned. I think the setting is a small rural town.

The book revolves around two sisters, one brunette, the other blonde.

Brunette is the main character and sees herself as the dull sister, she's shy, doesn't have any friends and considers herself ugly. She works at the school library and always wear grey skirts, her head is always down. She has a lot of resentment towards her sister who is very pretty and very popular.

Blonde sister is also extremelly kind and good, and at the end of the book the two sisters have a conversation in which brunette sister is upset that everything comes so easy to her sister, that everybody just likes her immediately. Blonde sister says that actually, she works really hard at being kind and that being a good person takes a lot of effort.

There also a side plot with a boy that likes Brunette sister and it involves.... frogs? I guess the boy was her parter at some school project and they had to go to the pond or something.

[Rainbowheart]

Jacob Have I Loved?

[Amanda]

Thanks, but I don't think it was this one. The book I'm thinking is definitely way less heavy than this one, and the story ends with the sisters still as teenagers, and the brunette girl ends ups with her classmate.