Jacqueline Wilson
Children's Laureate 2005-2007
Jacqueline Wilson was born in Bath in 1945, and spent her childhood in Kingston-on-Thames, Surrey, where she still lives today. She started her writing career as a teenage journalist with D.C. Thompson, writing for the teenage magazine Jackie which was named after her. Today her popular books for children have sold millions of copies and have been translated into more than thirty languages.
Jacqueline's books include The Story of Tracy Beaker, which has become a hugely successful BBC TV series; Girls in Love, which together with its two sequels was filmed for ITV television; and Double Act, which she adapted for Channel 4 and which won the Royal TV Society's Best Children's Fiction Award. As the fourth Children's Laureate (2005-2007) she promoted the importance of sharing books, and reading aloud together.
Books
Buried Alive!
Author: Jacqueline Wilson Illustrator: Nick Sharratt and Sue Heap
Publisher: Random House
Interest age: 8+
Reading age: 8+
This humorous tale sensitively highlights issues such as friendship and bullying.
Girls Under Pressure
Author: Jacqueline Wilson Illustrator: Nick Sharratt
Publisher: Random House
Interest age: 11+
Reading age: 9+
Ellie feels like the ugly duckling beside her slim, gorgeous friends Magda and Nadine. She decides to go on a diet, but she soon gets carried away with her plan to lose weight.
Kiss
Author: Jacqueline Wilson Illustrator: Nick Sharratt
Publisher: Corgi Children's
Interest age: 11+
Reading age: 9+
Wilson skilfully combines an approachable and involving teenage story with a debate about true friendship, sexual identity and growing up.
Lily Alone
Author: Jacqueline Wilson
Illustrator: Nick Sharratt
Publisher: Doubleday Children's Books
Interest age: 10+
Reading age: 10+
Lily's self-centred young mother jets off to a holiday in Spain with her new boyfriend. Lily and her three younger siblings are carelessly left behind.
Little Darlings
Author: Jacqueline Wilson
Illustrator: Nick Sharratt
Publisher: Yearling
Interest age: 11+
Reading age: 11+
An immensely readable novel which handles serious issues – fractured families, the nature of celebrity – with the lightest of touches.
Lola Rose
Author: Jacqueline Wilson
Illustrator: Nick Sharratt
Publisher: Random House
Interest age: 10+
Reading age: 9+
Jacqueline Wilson demonstrates her skill by capturing the experiences of a young carer, fearful about what the cancer will do to her mother.
The Suitcase Kid
Author: Jacqueline Wilson
Illustrator: Nick Sharratt
Publisher: Random House
Interest age: 9+
Reading age: 9+
Distraught at her parents' divorce, Andy cannot decide who she wants to live with. She spends one week at Mum's house, the next at Dad's, but never really feels that she belongs anywhere.
The Worry Website
Author: Jacqueline Wilson
Publisher: Random House
Interest age: 7+
Reading age: 7+
A Jacqueline Wilson title popular with boys and girls alike that deals with the issues children can have. Good for children to read by themselves but also a good chapter-a-night or read-aloud book.
The Worst Thing About My Sister
Author: Jacqueline Wilson
Illustrator: Nick Sharratt
Publisher: Doubleday Children's Books
Interest age: 7+
Reading age: 8+
Sisters Marty and Melissa just about manage to get along until they are forced to share a bedroom. Soon they are fighting every day, and to make things worse, Marty finds herself in trouble at school too.
We Are the Beaker Girls
Author: Jacqueline Wilson Illustrator: Nick Sharratt
Publisher: Puffin
Interest age: 9-11
Reading age: 8+
The sequel to My Mum Tracy Beaker is another Jacqueline Wilson classic, handling serious issues in a humorous, accessible and thoughtful way. Even many years after Jacqueline Wilson started writing like this, somehow it still feels trailblazing.