Kiss

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I was so convinced that I would feel differently about the way that Rax and Prue parted in the end, but I wasn't. Still, in my mind, I imagine that their affair grows and grows until she is 18 and he can finally leave his wife. I feel no guilt saying this for a few reasons. She does concede, though, that modern children would find “the idea that a woman’s place is to look after the menfolk – if you can call pixies and goblins menfolk – a bit odd.” So while Blyton’s magical world remains intact in Wilson’s version, we can expect hers to include fewer of the questionable social mores that can make some of Blyton’s work feel dated today.

Wilson has been writing for several decades, but her first significant success was The Story of Tracy Beaker (1991), which tells the tale of a girl who lives in a children’s home. Tracy is an endearing character but, in contrast to the classic tradition of angelic child-orphans (from Oliver Twist to, perhaps, Harry Potter), Wilson is brutally realistic: Tracy lies and steals, confuses fantasy and reality, and has difficulty forming relationships. She desperately wants a family to love her, but her behaviour makes this very difficult. Tracy’s story is continued in The Dare Game (2000), which shows her struggling to adapt to life with her new foster-mother, Cam, a woman who learns to truly love her. Eventually, Tracy realises that she has a real chance of happiness - it will not resemble the fantasies she has spent her life creating, but it may just give her what she needs. Tracy's life with Cam is explored further in Starring Tracy Beaker (2006), in which she prepares for a role in the school play. Despite her vivacious enjoyment of life, Tracy's past continues to haunt her, and she maintains a rose-tinted fantasy of being reunited with her natural mother. Tracy Beaker's Thumping Heart (2009), was written especially for Comic Relief's 'Red Nose Day'. 1992 saw the publication of The Suitcase Kid, the story of Andy, a girl who must adjust to her new life in which she spends alternate weeks with each parent, both of whom pressure her to choose between them. In The Bed and Breakfast Star (1994), Elsa’s world is turned upside-down when her stepfather loses his job and the family is forced into bed-and-breakfast accommodation. While her mother develops depression, Elsa must take responsibility for younger members of the family, yet maintains her sense of humour throughout. Another stunning Wilson masterpiece which has been added to my favourites and has set a new bar for Wilson's older teenage reads. Powerful, emotional and touching exploration of teenage heartbreak and sexuality. the whole story comes from sylvie's perspective which is really interesting. i read this book when i was a child and of course, it did come as a surprise when carl's true sexuality was revealed. but reading this now, the twist was obvious. i really liked the book but i'm only giving 3 stars because i felt that some parts could have been better. Wilson can be compared with her contemporary, Anne Fine, particularly in the ability to empathise with both the child’s and the adult’s point of view, and in showing that no-one, child or adult, is wholly ‘good’ or wholly ‘bad’. Both these writers depict the inner workings of their child (or teenage) characters’ minds with sensitivity and understanding, and make it clear when a child’s needs are not being met. Yet many of the adult characters are also shown sympathetically, or at least ambivalently, even when their behaviour is at fault. The Illustrated Mum (1999) is told from the point of view of 10-year-old Dolphin, who lives with her 13-year old sister, Star, and their mother Marigold (the title derives from Marigold’s abundant tattoos). Throughout the novel, the question of whether or not Marigold is an ‘unfit mother’ is raised again and again, yet Wilson shows that there is no clear dividing line between ‘fit’ and ‘unfit’. Marigold is endearing and affectionate, but she is infuriatingly irresponsible, and assumes the role of child rather than adult. This forces her daughters to take on the role of parent; Star is responsible and scolding, while Dolphin comforts and reassures: ‘ “What should I do?” [Marigold] whispered to me. “Star didn’t really mean it,” I said’. kiss' is the story of sylvie and carl who have been best friends ever since they've known each other. they've even conjured fantasies of getting married but when carl moves to another school and meets another boy named paul, sylvie can't help but feel as if something's changed...At 19 she married a printer at the firm, Millar Wilson, and at 21 had her daughter, Emma. “I wouldn’t recommend getting married at 19,” she says. “Because you don’t know who you are.” The couple eventually separated, divorced in 2004, and are on good terms now. Perhaps because she was so young, however, neither marriage nor motherhood seems to have depleted her energy or imaginative resources. When Emma was at nursery for two hours every morning, Wilson would bash out 2,000 words of her own stories or, if money was tight, true confession-type stories for magazines, then spend the afternoons “sitting cross-legged together on the floor” making paper dolls and making up further stories for them. In a culture that, as she observes, now almost demands that novelists have firsthand experience of what they write about, she hasn’t felt any obligation to speak out as some sort of mentor. “I don’t think that girls would ever have wanted a grey-haired, wrinkly writer as a role model if they were wanting to feel good about maybe being gay,” she laughs. “I’m sure they could find much more glamorous examples.” She knows she is fortunate that, in her mid-70s, she is still going strong. Her father died of heart and kidney failure in his 50s. “I’ve had exactly the same things [illnesses] and yet have been given all this borrowed time,” she says. As well as winning many awards for her books, including the Children’s Book of the Year, Jacqueline is a former Children’s Laureate, and in 2008 she was appointed a Dame.

So much has changed since the largely analogue days of Sleepovers. Not just in terms of technology, but attitudes. In the first book, Lily, the non-verbal, wheelchair-using sister of the narrator Daisy, is largely passive. In the new book, Lily is the hero – sassy, communicative (she communicates using the sign language Makaton) with a super-cool disabled best friend. The girls are the same age, but the setting is bang up to date. Now when the snotty bully Chloe is desperate to show off in front of her peer group, she does so by boasting that a TikTok influencer will be coming to her sleepover. It turns out the author has strong views on TikTok, and the digital world in general. I don't usually log my re-reads, but because so much time has passed and because I have so many feelings about this book; look obviously, it was written by a middle-aged woman in 2007 so some of the things the characters say aren't acceptable by today's standards (the reiteration that it could 'just be a phase' etc etc), but since Jacqueline Wilson came out only a few years ago ... I think a charitable reading is required, because without wanting to analyse the psyche and inner-world of a woman I do not know, I wonder if she was thinking about her own adolescence through this lens.

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I first came upon this in With its sprinkling of stars and hearts, Love Frankie (her 111th book, if anyone is still counting), looks like any other teen romance, but the rainbow on the inside cover is a clue that this isn’t the usual boy-meets-girl story. The middle one of three sisters, bookish tomboy Frankie is struggling to deal with her mum’s MS diagnosis, their dad leaving them for “horrible Helen”, and the mean girls at school: so far, so Jacqueline Wilson. Then she falls for Sally, the prettiest, coolest girl in class. (And she just happens to be writing a dystopian story “about a devastating plague affecting the whole Earth”.) I loved the imaginary world that Wilson created for Sylvie and Carl in GlassWorld and honestly I would just love to read the GlassWorld Chronicles that Sylvie and Carl write throughout the novel. The way that the Chronicles were woven through the story really helped the audience to understand Sylvie's personality in more depth and therefore sympathise with her as her perfect world shatters around her.

Still, her absence from social media diminishes any worry she might have felt about being “cancelled” for an incorrect remark. “It’s quite scary, particularly for older people who don’t want to offend anybody at all, how easy it can be [to offend],” she says. “But you have to write what you believe.” I decided to re-read my childhood collection of Jacqueline Wilson books and this was my latest read. However, I've realised that maybe this book shouldn't have been in my childhood collection, as it was very mature. However, thats how I like them!

What I think Wilson did well – very well – was the relationship between Rax and Prue, when we finally get to it. I found it realistic and could see how things could play out exactly as they did. Rax steps closely to the line, and yes he crosses it. I was convinced that he genuinely fell for Prue, but his behaviour was neither pervy nor predatory nor was he manipulative (as is the case with the teacher in other books of a similar theme, e.g. Sweetest Taboo). I am not condoning his actions but I can see he was torn between his feelings for her and doing the right thing and sometimes this caused him to make the wrong choices. She agrees with the criticisms that children’s books still have a long way to go in reflecting diversity in general. She has always imagined her best-loved character Tracy Beaker “to be of dual heritage, because I’d never ever mentioned her dad, who is long off the scene”, although for many a millennial she will always be remembered as she was portrayed in the hugely popular 2002 CBBC TV series by Dani Harmer. Despite this, she feels publishing has a lot to learn from the increasingly colour-blind casting of television shows, including the recent adaptation of Katy, Wilson’s retelling of Susan Coolidge’s classic What Katy Did, which changed how she thought of her own characters. This book has many nostalgic feelings about it because although I didn't read this particular book as a child; being 14 when this book came out, I had decided I was far too grown up to read 'children's books', I loved Jacqueline Wilson books throughout my childhood. Any one of her books fills me with memories of reading and discovering my love for sitting down with a good book. I knew before I read this book that it would be great! It was! Kiss' is a story for older fans of Jacqueline Wilson. It's based on the character of Sylvie who is going through that awkward stage of growing up. She has no breasts, she's not started her period and she has never been kissed. And to top it all off, her dad left her a few years ago so her mum is lonely and constantly wondering where she is going to end up. One thing that she has always had to help her through the tough times, one thing stable is her relationship with next door neighbour Carl. He has been her best friend since they were little and the two of them bonded even more so over his love for glass and a small story they are working on together about a fantasy place called Glassworld. The story takes place in the middle of the awkward stage of growing up. Sylvie and Carl are both at different schools now and although they are close, Sylvie cannot help but feel distant from Carl. She feels as if he is a different person. Sylvie starts a mediocre friendship with a girl called, Lucy, at her school, however Carl fails to take a liking to Lucy and even Sylvie seems to be unsure of whether she likes her or not, so she soon branches out. She meets super-cool and extremely popular, Miranda. A very well matured girl who loves her and boys, and the two become best friends. However, after a few scary drama-filled night, Sylvie finds herself confused whether Carl loves her or Miranda. But how will she take it when she finds out the truth of Carl's love life? After being put in the position and having mixed messages from Carl, she has been constantly confused about whether or not she is attractive and what is the problem with her. Is it her looks? No, of course not. It's one thing and one thing only...Carl.