Throughout my childhood, I read many Jacqueline Wilson books, and her writing style was very easy to read which ultimately allowed me to develop into being a vivid reader. However, there were more books than I would like to count that had an interesting impact on me, even now as an adult. Additionally, I would like to add that my parents probably allowed me to read these books because Wilson is branded as a children’s author, but I would argue that I definitely should not have been reading these before my age even had double digits. Below are just three of the traumatic books I have read, but there are more out there.
My Sister Jodie starts with an average family, with there being clear issues from the older sister Jodie, aged 14, and her behaviour problems, which leads to her and her family moving to a boarding school for her parents’ jobs. Her younger sister, Pearl aged 10, starts as a meek child, but after going to boarding school, she gains confidence and this affects their relationship. Jodie’s difficult time at the boarding school ends with her on Guy Fawkes night climbing to the top of one of the locked school towers, dressed as a ghost, but she falls from the top window, breaks her neck and dies. The book questions whether Jodie genuinely fell by accent, or purposefully killed herself after a difficult term. As a child, I remember being vividly shaken by it in a way that I hadn’t been before. The pages jumped out at me when she fell to her death in front of young children.
One day in Year Five, our teacher asked us what we were reading, and when I told her what my book was about, I thought she might have confiscated it on the spot. It was Love Lessons. It was about a teenager who fell in love with her art teacher and babysat his children. Prue, the 14-year-old main character, ends up having a close relationship with this teacher when she decides to act on her feelings and her teacher reciprocates. What is clear to me now is that this is a story of grooming by someone in a position of power, and yet I read this at age 9.
Whilst the reading age of Love Lessons is listed as 12-17, it was always shelved with her other work, hence why many parents, including my own, wouldn’t have questioned us reading it.
Lily Alone is about a young girl named Lily and her three younger siblings. Her mum is suffering from depression and looking back possibly some alcohol issues. Her mum Kate, ends up leaving eleven-year-old Lily alone with her siblings whilst she goes on holiday to Spain with her new boyfriend. Lily ‘manages’ for a few days but ultimately ends up terrified of social services finding out that they are alone, and ends up running away with her siblings to the park. I remember being so distressed that her mum would leave them. What’s more, her younger sister ends up breaking her leg at the park and they are all taken into care, with Lily being split from her siblings. Ultimately, this is a very distressing novel with themes that would haunt many children.
“Dame Jacqueline Wilson launches easyJet Book Club, Gatwick, UK 18th July 2017” by TaylorHerring is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.