Jacqueline Wilson

[Viv of Ginger Pop]

"Pull your act together! Look what an opportunity this is!" Came a voice in my head.
I straightened up.
"Hi. I'm Anna. I was just um, wondering if you'd sign this article we had to write about a person we admire. I, um, chose you and It was put in the school year book. Please, could you sign it?" I said, smiling confidently.

I enjoyed your account, too, Anna.

Acting confidently, even when you don't feel it, can get you a very long way. You've no idea how nervous the people around you are feeling either - and they may be worried about you!

Viv

[Icecream342]

I love her books. I like hetty feather and My sister jodie. I can't wait until september 2011 because saphire battersea is being reliesed!!!!!

[Icecream342]

have you seen her rings?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/learning/ ... linewilson" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There was a live link-up with jacqueline Wilson on the 3rd March 2011. It is interesting

[Anita Bensoussane]

Yesterday in WHSmith I came across a book called Paws and Whiskers:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Paws-Whiskers-J ... 0857533525" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It contains animal-themed short stories and book extracts chosen by Jacqueline Wilson, taken from the work of Michael Morpurgo, Philippa Pearce, Dodie Smith, Noel Streatfeild and many other authors - including Enid Blyton. The book is published by Doubleday and, for every copy sold, a royalty goes to Battersea Dogs & Cats Home.

Enid Blyton is represented by a passage from The Story of My Life ('Pets I Have Had') and a chapter of Shadow the Sheep-Dog ('Johnny Gets Into Trouble'). Introducing the Shadow chapter, Jacqueline Wilson says that she read about a hundred Enid Blyton books as a girl and that Shadow the Sheep-Dog was one of her favourites.

[Poppy]

I saw this book a few weeks ago, too, Anita, and I thought it looked a lovely book; with many interesting extracts inside. Obviously, I was especially interested in the Blyton-contents and I thought Jacqueline Wilson had selected two very nice examples of Enid's stories/ chapters based on animals.

On the subject of Jacqueline Wilson in general: I'm not much of a fan. I have read or listened to audio book versions of her work, and though she is clearly a talented and original author - her work doesn't interest me much at all. As others have established, the books all have quite a depressing storyline and all seem to feature roughly the same situation: one parent walking out and the child adjusting to life without them. My sister seems to like her books though, and one series does interest me - the Hetty Feather books, which look quite old-fashioned and interesting. I think I will give these a try after Christmas.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I too would like to try the Hetty Feather books, Poppy. Some months ago, following a hospital appointment in London, I visited the Foundling Museum in Brunswick Square which I believe inspired Jacqueline Wilson. I know Jacqueline Wilson was a great fan of Noel Streatfeild as a child, so I wonder whether she might also have been influenced by Noel Streatfeild's Thursday's Child and Far to Go.

Another Jacqueline Wilson book that interests me is Four Children and It because it's a tribute to E. Nesbit's Five Children and It. I've got a copy and I intend to read it in the near future.

A few months ago I read The Illustrated Mum and found it well-written but depressing - similar to Lola Rose in some respects, which I've also read.

[Poppy]

Another Jacqueline Wilson book that interests me is Four Children and It because it's a tribute to E. Nesbit's Five Children and It. I've got a copy and I intend to read it in the near future.

Yes, there is a nice hardback copy of this book, sitting unread, on my sister's bookshelf. It looks a really nice book, and it sounds quite similar to the original:

Rosalind and Robbie don't want to spend the summer stuck in their dad's new house with irritating Smash [and yes - that is one of the human character's names ] and her glamorous mum. Dad's biggest wish is for everyone to get along. So when he suggests a picnic in nearby Oxshott Woods, the children grudgingly agree. That afternoon, in a golden sandpit, Rosalind makes a wish of her own and something extraordinary happens. It just might change their summer from the weeks of rows and bickering into the best holiday these four children has ever had...

Sounds intriguing.

[joanne_chan]

I quite enjoy reading her books although the settings for a good many are more obviously contemporary looking at say family structure, children's roles and so on.Certain novels are rather dark reflecting perhaps that less rosy side to childrens lives today I guess with insecurity.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I recently read Jacqueline Wilson's Four Children and It, which was written as a tribute to E. Nesbit. The opening chapters are full of modern misery with a bunch of siblings, half-siblings and step-siblings who hate the thought of spending the holidays together. But unexpected things happen which affect the family and their relationships, and I was soon caught up in their lives and found some parts really moving. Two of the characters in particular appealed to me - the bookish girl who narrates the story and her sensitive little brother, who loves animals. People who have read E. Nesbit's Five Children and It will get the most out of the book, but it can still be understood and enjoyed by readers who aren't familiar with Nesbit's characters.

At one point there's a mention of Enid Blyton, though it refers to the mythical "lashings of ginger beer":

"Yes, a picnic! I haven't had a proper picnic since I was a little kid myself. Sandwiches and hard-boiled eggs and cherry cake and lashings of lemonade," said Dad.

"That's an Enid Blyton picnic - and it's lashings of ginger beer, not lemonade," I said, but so quietly that only Robbie heard.

In a note at the end of the book, Jacqueline Wilson writes of her love for E. Nesbit and remarks, "When I read a biography of E. Nesbit, I discovered that she had a new silver bangle to celebrate the publication of each book - whereas I always choose a special silver ring." Whenever I've seen Jacqueline Wilson interviewed on television she's always been wearing enormous silver rings on her fingers, studded with stones of all colours.

Helen Cresswell also wrote a book inspired by Five Children and It, called The Return of the Psammead, but Four Children and It takes things in a very different direction.

[Rebeccadanielle]

I love Jacqueline Wilson books. The only one I haven't enjoyed was The Longest Whale Song. The Hetty Feather books are great, but I didn't enjoy Diamond (follows on from the Hetty Feather Trilogy but as a stand-alone) as much. Five Children and It was a good read. My favourite recent book has been Queenie.

[Fiona1986]

Split from another topic.

Even TV series or films based on modern children's books sometimes stray from the original text to a much greater degree than the Malory Towers series. I've read the first two Hetty Feather books by Jacqueline Wilson (Hetty Feather and Sapphire Battersea), and the TV adaptation is so different that huge chunks of it bear no resemblance to the books at all.

I've read (well, listened to) the first two Hetty Feather books too, but it entirely escaped me that there was a TV series! When /where was it on?

[Boatbuilder]

Assuming this is the one, Fiona, there are details here, and it's an ongoing series since 2015.

If you have Amazon Prime they also seem to be included in that.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4670954/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Anita Bensoussane]

That's the one. It was shown on CBBC, with the latest series (Series 5) being broadcast in 2019.

I also recently watched Katy on CBBC, a three-part adaptation of Jacqueline Wilson's book. The book was inspired by Susan Coolidge's What Katy Did but set in the modern day.

[Fiona1986]

I have Amazon Prime! I'll definitely check it out, thanks.

I saw a few seconds of an advert that made me think there is to be an adaptation of JW's Four Children and It but I can't find it online - not helped by the fact my laptop is not getting on with the internet at all right now.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Hope your laptop decides to start behaving itself, Fiona! There's a trailer here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... e=emb_logo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The film is called Four Kids and It, which doesn't have quite the same ring to it as Four Children and It!