In Praise Of: Jacqueline Wilson
Twenty years ago something momentous happened. Some genius in publishing teamed a little-known but brilliantly talented children’s and adult mystery writer with an equally little-known but equally brilliantly talented illustrator.
Together, they have conquered the world of pre-teen fiction. They are of course, Jacqueline Wilson and Nick Sharratt , and the book was The Story of Tracy Beaker.
Tracy Beaker was genius because it took the notion of a girl’s diary (complete with her doodles) and made it all at once heart-rendingly sad and hilariously funny.
Tracy is stuck in a children’s home, waiting for her clearly useless mother to whisk her away in what she imagines will be a luxury sports car. Marked as a trouble maker by the staff and at constant war with the hideous Justine, Tracy spends her days copping off school and making the rest of the children participate in her ridiculous schemes.
She longs to be fostered, but her constant belief that her mother will return and her attitude problem puts people off, until she finally meets Cam, who adopts her. The book was adapted for CBBC and ran between 2003 and 2006.
Jacqueline Wilson began writing as a teenager, finding work on Jackie magazine. She wrote some forty plus books before the success of The Story of Tracy Beaker, including possibly my favourite of hers, The Left Outs.
I believe The Left Outs should have been republished with Nick Sharratt illustrations, like 1985’s How To Survive Summer Camp, as it is a fantastic book about a young confident girl who falls apart when her parents split up and she is forced to move schools.
When she is cast as a rat in the school production of The Pied Piper of Hamlin, this is the last straw for her and she rebels, in spectacular style. If you were a childhood Wilson fan who missed out on this one give it a go – it’s fantastic.
The success of The Story of Tracy Beaker and Wilson’s following children’s books, including the Smarties Prize winning Double Act, led to her becoming a firm favourite with teachers and children everywhere, though her hard-hitting themes and willingness to explore real and pertinent issues affecting children made her unpopular with the more conservative faction.
Wilson’s stories are tough. Many deal with neglect and abuse of children, but with the latest figures from leading children’s charities claiming that one in three children suffer neglect or abuse at some point in their lives maybe it isn’t so hard-hitting as representative of real life.
Many of the books look at divorce and how that affects the family. One of my favourites, The Suitcase Kid, has it’s protagonist Andy divide her time between her mum’s and her dad’s new families. Her relationship with her Sylvanian rabbit Radish and the sadness that inhabits her life made this essential reading for me. I re-read the book a couple of months ago and it’s still brilliant.
For me, Wilson’s (mainly female, though Cliffhanger is one of the notable and brilliant exceptions) protagonists were brilliant because they were normal, everyday girls from all walks of life who were still experiencing the same day-to-day problems I did in my comfortable middle-class home.
No one writes the meanness of ten year olds quite like Wilson; from the bullying Mandy experiences in Bad Girls to the one-upmanship the classmates have in Midnight, everything about how horrible it actually is being a child is brought to the surface.
Children and teenagers (who she expanded into her readership with the fab Girls In Love series staring Ellie, Magda and Nadine as threeunlikely best friends coping with being young together) still love her, and she has become a wee bit of a brand.
Now an OBE and a Dame, with an online fanclub, Facebook page and vast collection of merchandise, still faithfully illustrated by the multi-award winning Nick Sharratt, her success is bound only to continue.
With The Story of Tracy Beaker being the most popular library book of the noughties, and her publishing rate of at least one book a year, Wilson is getting more and more young people reading.
Her latest book, Lily Alone, was published at the beginning of this month. Telling the story of Lily, whose mother mysteriously goes “on holiday” leaving Lily to care for her younger brothers and sisters with no money or food, it promises to be as hard-hitting as her classics.
Jess Haigh
Love this feature, it’s made me all nostalgic for the days of ransacking the shelves at my local library in search of Jacqueline Wilson’s books!
I absolutely adored The Suitcase Kid, but all of them are wonderful, and I loved what I’ve read of her YA fiction too (I still smugly remember the day the librarian consented to lend me The Power of the Shade, despite it being from the older teens section!).
I was lucky enough to meet Ms. Wilson too, and I was possibly the most starstruck I’ve ever been. She is an absolute rockstar of children’s fiction!
It’s fantastic to see Jacqueline featured here. I was a big fan and have photos of a delighted, Alice band wearing 10 year old version of myself proudly meeting her at my local bookshop too! As well as creating fantastically written fiction and characters and families that were so identifiable, it’s brilliant to note how much she gives to her fans.
She lived in the town I grew up in and when I wrote to her, she always wrote back lovely handwritten letters to me, complete with her own drawings and encouragement on how I could pursue my own writing dreams. She was the best pen pal I’ve had!
It’s wonderful to see how her work has continued to grow in popularity and inspire generations of children. Thanks for suggesting some titles I hadn’t read before, Jess!