Tuesday 29 November 2011

The Story of Tracy Beaker

The Story of Tracy Beaker is based on events happening all over the country in, as Tracy calls them, dumping grounds (children's homes). The author of this book, Jacqueline Wilson, often writes about problems that affect children such as being left at children's homes, divorcing parents and moving to new places.
Tracy Beaker is a 10 year old girl who has an extra 10 years of attitude. She is waiting for her Hollywood movie star mum to pick her up in a limo and take her to a tropical island where she will swim with the dolphins and fly with the eagles. Unfortunately, until that happens she is stuck with Justine No Good Littlewood and everyone else in the dumping ground.
Because I loved the character of Tracy Beaker so much, and her opinion of the world, the humour in this book has gained it a 96 out of 100.

Jay writes -
This is my first Jacqueline Wilson and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I guess she is the Judy Blume of this generation, tacking issues and emotions affecting kids in a funny and realistic way. Tracy is a wonderful character. Much of the pathos comes from what she doesn't say - her Hollywood mum is really a young woman with an abusive partner and Tracy has no idea how to find her. Tracy's angry, destructive streak and her passionate creativity never let her slip into someone you pity. She'd be very hard to be friends with but probably worth it.
We both liked that Tracy 'never cries, just gets hayfever,' which happens to coincide with being upset.

2 comments:

  1. She's a great writer Jacqueline Wilson, isn't she? So many people try to write similar subject matter and it just turns out drab and grim. I'm interested that Luke enjoyed it as he probably isn't her typical reader.

    Illustrated Mum is another good one.

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  2. Funnily enough I read Illustrated Mum last night - we picked it up for 50p at a Christmas fair along with 2 others. I found it so hard to read - my heart just broke for them again and again.
    Luke had read a bunch of Jacqueline Wilsons at school. You know Luke - he's smart enough to let gender be no barrier to a good book!
    Zach is also enjoying the Jacqueline Wilsons, as is staying up far too late to read them.

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