REVIEW - Vicky Angel by Jacqueline Wilson

The Book

Release Date: 1 March 2007 (Originally 2000)

Goodreads Link

No. 86 - The BIG Read

Every time a new Jacqueline Wilson book arrives, there is always a small part of every reviewer that dreads opening the book in case this time the author has missed the mark. But as yet, Wilson has never disappointed either the critics or her customers, and with Vicky Angel she once again pulls a little magic out of the hat and delivers another stunning novel with her trademark sensitivity and panache.

Jade and Vicky are best friends, but when Vicky is killed in an accident she doesn't let a little old thing like being dead interfere with her life. Instead, she continues as normal, following Jade around, telling her what to do, how to think, how to behave and ruining any chance Jade may have to make new friends. Eventually Jade tires of it all, and although she still loves Vicky deeply, she realises she has to get on with her own life.

Once again, Wilson digs deep and delves into tricky territory with a tenacity that at first shocks; but within a few minutes the shock subsides and the reader is drawn into Jade's world, willing her to come to terms with Vicky's death and praying that she will soon find her own way.

As ever, Wilson's characters are beautifully observed, and the story is filled to the brim with an emotional truth that is awe inspiring and captivating. Jade's response to Vicky's death, her realisation that the pedestal on which Vicky was placed during her short life was not as stable as she first believed and the ultimate release from the burden of guilt and love are dealt with with a sleight of hand that allows the reader to become completely involved with the story without a hint of darkness, captured instead by a lightness of touch that can only serve to make Wilson's peers green with envy.

The Illustrated Mum was the absolute best. Vicky Angel, a sort of Truly, Madly, Deeply for kids, runs an extraordinarily tight second. (Age 8 and over) --Susan Harrison

My Opinion  3 STARS
This book is for years 8+ and deals with the issues of death, grief and moving on.

Jade loses her best friend and sidekick as they are walking home from school and having an argument that Vicky always gets her way. They never do anything that Jade wants.

But Jade can't move on to make new friends and she keeps seeing the ghost of Vicky who is not very pleasant. 

Fatboy Sam is a lovely character who doesn't give up, even though at times she is really mean to him.

I'm not sure we really needed the dysfunctional parents added into the story making things harder for poor Jade. 

I never picked up the Jacqueline Wilson books up as a kid and am only reading them as part of the big read, but I don't think They would have been my kind of books back them either.

REVIEW - Double Act by Jacqueline Wilson

The Book

Release Date: 5 October 2006

Goodreads Link

No. 80 - The BIG Read

No one can ever be like a mother to us, especially not stupid frizzy dizzy Rose! Ruby and Garnet are 10-year-old identical twins. They do everything together, especially since their mom died three years ago. Can being a double act work forever? Especially when their father starts dating again?

My Opinion  4 STARS

This is my favourite book so far that I have read from Jacqueline Wilson.  This was kind of like a mix of St Trinian's and The Parent Trap.

Two twins who do everything together, say things together and have their own language and gestures that only they can interpret.  Ruby is the older twin and the one in charge of what they do.  Garnet is the shy twin who practically does whatever Ruby wants and is the smarter of the two.

But with a shake up in the family when their widowed dad tells them that they are moving to the country with his girlfriend everything changes.

They both start to see the differences in the other more especially when they don't get the part in acting that Ruby wanted and then Garnet gets a scholarship to boarding school.

Its quite a sweet story really and I did find it really funny at times.

REVIEW - Dustbin Baby by Jacqueline Wilson

The Book
Release Date: 1 March 2007
Goodreads Link

No. 176 - The BIG Read

April knows she was found in a dustbin fourteen years ago as a new-born baby. And now she's fairly happily settled with her foster mother, Marion. But she's desperate to recall what happened in the intervening years, and to see if she can find out where she really came from in the first place. A highly moving but very accessible novel, in Jacqueline Wilson's unique, acclaimed and adored style.

My Opinion  3 STARS
We meet April on her 14th birthday which is April Fools day. She was found in the bins behind a pizza place with no clothes, no nappy and no note. Just abandoned.

This book would be good for 12 years old onwards however at times April does seem quite childish for her age even with what she has been through.

The first half of the book is mainly reminiscing back to the days before she was about 5. How she was found abandoned and by who, how she was adopted but things didn't end up going very well. 

It was her own mini autobiography where another girl doesn't realise whats she has until she goes through the day and finds that she isn't going to get all her answers and that perhaps she is a little selfish.

Loved the ending with Frankie though, thought that was very sweet. We also see Elaine the social worker from Tracy Beaker and Tanya from Bad Girls.

Still as an adult, not a book I will be reading again, but I can see why the younger teenagers would like it.

REVIEW - Bad Girls by Jacqueline Wilson

The Book
Release Date: 5 October 2006
Goodreads Link

No.117 - The BIG Read

Shy, mild Mandy has been bullied at school for as long as she can remember. That's why she is delighted when cheeky, daring, full-of-fun Tanya picks her as a friend.

Mum isn't happy - she thinks Tanya's a BAD GIRL and a bad influence on her daughter. But Mandy loves spending time with her brilliant new friend, and is sure Tanya can only get her out of trouble, not into it . . . or could she?

My Opinion  3 STARS
This book tackles the issues of bullying and stealing along with one of the characters being involved with the foster care system.

Shy Mandy is bullied because her mum dresses her quite young, her mum is overweight and the fact that her mum picks her up from school.

She finds a friend in a new girl that appears over the road who is a little bit older, and seems at lot cooler. But Tanya likes to steal things for both of them and takes care of Mandy constantly telling Mandy how lucky she is to have her parents.

Mandy starts learning how to stick up for herself and makes new friends so that when she hoes back to school she can ignore the bullies.

REVIEW - The Dare Game (Tracy Beaker #2) by Jacqueline Wilson

The Book
Release Date: 24 October 2006
Goodreads Link

No. 116 - The BIG Read

I’m Tracy Beaker, the great inventor of extremely outrageous dares! I’ve bought a big fat purple notebook for writing down all my mega-manic ultra scary stories in. But especially for my own story. Of how my foster mum, Cam, has turned out to be a real meanie. No designer clothes, when I really need them. A pokey flat, and a horrible new school. No wonder I bunk off. Still, it will have to do until my real mum comes and gets me. And until then, no one is going to be better at the Dare Game than Tracy Beaker!


My Opinion  3 STARS
This book follows on from where Tracy had pestered Cam to foster her, and well Tracy got her wish and is now living in Cam's little flat in a box room that she helped decorate.

However things are not quite going quite as she thought they would. She has second hand clothes and Cam does not constantly buy her presents or expensive designer wear. Tracy is also bullied at her new school and hates her teacher so she starts to play truant.

Along the way Tracy makes two new friends, weedy little Alexander and Football, a guy who like to play, you guessed it, football.

When her mother males a return to the scene, Tracy finds that perhaps all that she had been wishing and dreaming for were just that. Reality isn't as good as she thought it would be.

All of this shows her she can make friends and tells her who she really wants to live with.

REVIEW - Girls in Tears (Girls #4) by Jacqueline Wilson

The Book

No. 139 - The BIG Read

Ellie, Magda and Nadine are back - but they're not very happy! Ellie's glorious romance with Russell is teetering on the rocks. Magda's lost her pet and is desperately upset (though the others didn't even know she still had a hamster!). And Nadine is fed up with the other two lecturing her about the dangers of meeting someone on the Internet. She thinks her e-mail boyfriend sounds wonderful! Buckets of tears are wept and hundreds of tissues sniffled into. Can the girls' friendship survive these testing times? A superb fourth instalment in the GIRLS series, following GIRLS IN LOVE, GIRLS UNDER PRESSURE and GIRLS OUT LATE. A perfect read for older fans from the best-selling author, Jacqueline Wilson.

My Opinion  3 STARS
This book is about three best friends who are coping with boyfriends, jealousy and growing up.

Ellie and her friends deal with an internet boyfriend who seems too good to be true, cheating, and best friends that betray them when alcohol and the death of pets are involved.

We also see that even though you may not be best friends with someone at the moment you will aways get together with them to help save your other friends along the way.

The book is good for those over 11, but as an adult I just found reading it funny.  I certainly would not like to be in my early teens again.  I don't think I could handle being a teenager in today's world, let alone going through growing up and the love/hate relationship with your friends.

REVIEW - Sleepovers by Jacqueline Wilson

The Book
Release Date:13 March 2008
Goodreads Link

No. 140 - The BIG Read

Amy, Bella, Chloe, Daisy and Emily are friends at school and have their own Alphabet Club (just look at their initials!). Daisy is the newest member and is desperate to fit in, even though Chloe is very unfriendly to her at times.

When the girls begin planning sleepover parties for their birthdays, Daisy is dreading her own - she doesn't know what her friends will make of her rather special older sister . . .

My Opinion  3 STARS
Five little girls decide that for their birthdays they are all going to have a sleepover.  They are the alphabet girls as their name go from A to E.  Amy, Bella, Chloe, Daisy and Emily.  Daisy is our MC and she likes Emily better, but Chloe is the mean girl of the group, the leader and the bossy-boots.

Chloe makes it clear to Daisy that she does not like her, however it is always behind the others backs until its Emilys party and her own, which she initially does not invite her to.

All five of the girls have quite different personalities but you very quickly want Chloe to get her comeuppance for being such a nasty little girl.

Its a very small book, that has no set timeframe, but lets you remember a time when you were little and it was hard to make new friends and even harder when there is on that you tends to be a bit of a bully.

Lola Rose by Jacqueline Wilson

The Book
Release Date: 2003

No. 121 - The BIG Read

When life with Jayni's violent-tempered father becomes too frightening to cope with, Jayni, her mum and her little brother Kenny are forced to escape in the middle of the night. Slipping out of the house unseen, travelling up to London by train and checking into a hotel - it's almost like playing an elaborate game. They even make up false identities to protect their secret, and Jayni becomes the glamorous-sounding Lola Rose. But when money runs out and reality bites, what will they do next?

My Opinion  3 STARS
It seems most of the Jacqueline Wilson's books are quite dark in the fact that there is abuse or something else going on that the eleven or twelve year old ends up being more of an adult than her parents.

Jayni who calls herself Lola Rose after her mother flees from their father when instead of just hitting her mother he suddenly turns on the daughter.

They head to London and although her mother is very loving and seems to love them very much she is also another selfish parent.  She can't keep a proper job, brings a strange younger man into their lives and spends money like water slipping through her fingers.

Lola-Rose spends most of her time looking after her younger brother Kenny (now Kendall), keeping him happy, taking him to and from school and when her mother goes into hospital looking after him by herself until their is no money or food left, upon she rings her auntie who she has never seen before.

Again nothing can go right and we find her mum has Caner and her very large Auntie turns up and looks after everything.  Both sisters squabble but it shows that even though they haven't seen each other for years  they still love each other.

Being a Jacqueline Wilson book we do get a HEA but of course there is lots of trouble along the way, with the girl feeling older and doing older things than she should be.  A girl who is put in a situation far above her age range in which she has no option to cope.

Girls Out Late (Girls #3) by Jacqueline Wilson

The Book

No. 167 - The BIG Read

Ellie has a boyfriend! Interested in her - not in her best friends, Magda and Nadine! She and Russell are made for each other - drawn together by their shared enjoyment of art. If only Dad thought Russell was perfect too... And as Ellie runs into trouble with a parent who thinks his daughter is too young for after-dark trysts in the park with oh-so-gorgeous Russell, Magda has a crush on a teacher - and Nadine's falling for slimy Liam again. What they need is a girls' night out - Girls Out Late!

My Opinion  3 STARS
Another quick read, where the series picks up where it left off in the last book.

Maga is still totally boy crazy, Nadine has that who emo thing going on and Ellie is there for her friends but still feeling very much fat and frumpy.

Ellie gets her first boyfriend and gets the inevitable 'who me' when he wants to talk to her and not her friends.  Although her friends don't seem so supportive in the beginning they are they when she needs them, and even help her in her rough patch.

All the girls find themselves in trouble and it is only with Ellies quick thinking that get them out of it, however there are in trouble with their parents the next day.

It has the inevitable growing up problems of wanting to be independent at south a young age, you feel like an adult and want to do all the adult things, however, you only find that maybe you were a little too young after all.

I would so hate to be this age again!

Girls Under Pressure (Girls #2) by Jacqueline Wilson

The Book

Magda is tall and glamorous, Nadine is willowy and 'gothic' and Ellie, well, Ellie is just plain normal. The three girls have been best friends 'forever' but now Ellie is convinced she's fat; Nadine wants to be a model; and Magda worries that her appearance is giving guys the wrong idea... They all long to change their looks and they're all under pressure!

My Opinion  3 STARS
Whilst this book covers the normal teenage boy issues it also looks at eating disorders. 

For a teenager i can see how it beings being normal and the fact that these disorders are out there it doesn't cover the deeper issue behind them. You also don't magically get better, with these types of disorder it takes a long time to get better. Ellie's dad also didn't help much with her issues treating it all as a joke.

It was good how the girls still were there for each other, each helping each other out with their own issues. It still seems to me however that Ellie is the glue that holds the girls together as friends.

Girls In Love (Girls #1) by Jacqueline Wilson

The Book

No. 98 - The BIG Read

Magda is tall and glamorous, Nadine is willowy and 'gothic' and Ellie, well, Ellie thinks she is unattractive and boring and that no boy will ever be interested in her. The three girls have been best friends 'forever' even though they don't seem to have much in common. But one thing they all want is a boyfriend!

Join the girls as they work out how to deal with all the surprises that being a teenage can bring. Sometimes sad, sometimes scary and often funny, don't miss this unputdownable and hugely popular trilogy for teenage readers by the award-winning Jacqueline Wilson.

My Opinion  4 STARS
Jacqueline Wilson really knows how to het into a young girls head. The book did have me giggling a few times at how thirteen year olds act. WELL past it now it was different seeing how things are, as you never really remember being that age.

The book focuses on three best friends Nadine, Magda and our narrator Ellie. We get the issues of growing up, step moms, pesky siblings and the issue of boyfriends. 

It was a laugh reading as an adult remembering how awkward that age is as things change from ugh boys, to giggling about them and wishing you too had a boyfriend and being jealous that your friend had one when you didn't.

It also shows the friendship that the girls have created and that even though you can fight at times, a true best friend will always forgive you.

The Story of Tracy Beaker (Tracy Beaker #1) by Jacqueline Wilson

The Book
Release Date: 1 July 1992

No. 31 - The BIG Read

'I'm Tracy Beaker. This is a book all about me. I'd read it if I were you. It's the most incredible dynamic heart-rending story. Honest.'

Tracy is ten years old. She lives in a Children's Home but would like a real home one day, with a real family. Meet Tracy, follow her story and share her hopes for the future in this beautifully observed, touching and often very funny tale, all told in Tracy's own words.

Shortlisted for the 1991 Smarties Prize, this story aims to be both moving and entertaining. 10-years-old Tracy tells of her life in a children's home, and how much she would like a real home and a real family.



My Opinion  4 STARS
This book is told from the point of view of a very feisty 10 year old who has lived in care homes and foster homes most of her life and is struggling with making friends, she also has a bit of a temper.

Tracy has a very vivid imagination and it would also appear that she likes to write and draw pictures in her diary/autobiography book.  the print is fairly large and the book is also filled will little sketches and letters that she has with a visiting writer.

It is a book most suited to younger readers than The Illustrated Mum, however as an adult is was still an enjoyable book to read, helping me relive what it was like to be that age again.

It was told so well that you could actually believe that a 10 year old had written it as her diary.

Really enjoyed it.

The Illustrated Mum by Jacqueline Wilson, Nick Sharratt (Illustrator)

The Book
Release Date: 2 March 2000

No. 110 - The BIG Read

Dolphin adores her mother: she's got wonderful clothes, bright hair and vivid tattoos all over her body. She definitely lives a colourful life. Dolphin's older sister, Star, also loves her but is beginning to wonder if staying with a mum whose temper can be as flashy as her body-art is the best thing for the girls…

My Opinion  4 STARS
This is actually quite a dark book about Dolphin our ten year old narrater, her thirteen year old sister Star and their thirty-three year old mother Marigold.

Marigold is not your congenital mother, she is covered in tattoos that mean something to her and she is also a little nutty.  I'm not sure if I would called her manic depressive or say that she is bi-polar.  Both fit her personality type.

The book focuses on their struggles with coping with their mothers behaviour and the fact that they are looking after her.  Marigold finds the man she pines for (Mickey) where he finds out her has a daughter.  This is where Dolphin struggles with the green-eyed-monster as her mother has never told her much about her own father.

As Star and Dolphin star falling apart and Star goes off to be with her father, Dolphin is left holding the fort together, but tragedy strikes.  With the help of her best friend Dolphin finds her father and other adults that start to help her out and her preconceived ideas on what life is like.

Although the book does end a bit abruptly, is nice to know that both girls find that they have other people that will help and care for them when things get harm, but the issues of where they are going to live are never actually solved.

This book is targeted at young teens I would guess and it does have some very gritty moments, but younger readers could well struggle with the content in the fact that its basically a broken home.  The book also has bullying issues along with the fact that Marigold drinks a lot.

A grittier book than I thought it would be.