Reviews

Dustbin Baby by Jacqueline Wilson

Only show reviews with written explanations

aotora's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This one was surprisingly heavy for a kids book, and especially for Jacqueline Wilson book. It talks about kids stuck in the system and it has a pretty heavy and dark theme.

The protagonist is April, who we meet on her 14th birthday. She is living with her pretty old fashioned foster mom who doesn't want to buy her a mobile phone but buys her earrings instead. She is upset and she runs off to go on a journey.

The entire book takes place in a single day, on her birthday. She was found as a baby in a dustbin behind a pizza place and then moved from home to home until she lands where she is now. She starts by going to the first home she was taken to when she was still a baby. She meets Pat the woman who had her for the first few months of her life and she meets Tanya, a new friend that is temporarily living there. She then goes to the graveyard where her second foster mother is - and that story was pretty dark. The couple was on the brink of the divorce so they decided to adopt her to fix their marriage. It didn't work as the father was out drinking a lot and he leaves- so the mothr commits suicide by slitting her wrists in a bathtub when April is five. We get a pretty graphic description - she goes to live with her dad but that doesn't work out so she is back in the system. She gets put in another home where she is bullied relentlessly by another girl until she pushes her down the stairs, and because of that she is sent to a special home for troubled kids. She starts stealing and finds a friend that makes her steal but who also loves and protects her and is motherly towards her. She goes back to that home and she reunites with the friend who meanwhile did complete 180 and changed her life around. She stopped stealing and is now a positive influence on those kids in that home. Last but not least she goes to the pizza place and she finally meets the man who found and saved her. It's a heartwarming ending as she learns that she has a lot of good supportive friends and that her foster mom loves her. I loved the book, I loved the darker topics but I wasn't a huge fan of the abrupt ending. I wished that the book continued just a bit longer instead ot hat sudden abrupt ending we got. But yeah, pretty dark children's book about a pretty serious but important topic.

cheekycherry05's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

kerry2046's review

Go to review page

2.0

Never really could get into it, not my favourite book

slaughtercarrie's review

Go to review page

inspiring sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

ashley_g13's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

This brings me back a few years. I will always remember how big an influence these books had on me as a child and just how much Jaqueline’s works instilled my love for both reading and writing. Now fast forward to now and i’ve just graduated with a degree in film and screenwriting and and hopefully going to be working on writing films/shows all because when i was a young child i pick up these books and fell head over heels in love with the magical abilities a book can posses to transform you to a whole other world. Thank you so much