A review by hallymichelle
My Mum Tracy Beaker by Jacqueline Wilson

4.0

This is classic JW. I feel as though she was bearing the older, original readers of Tracy Beaker in mind when writing this and pulled out all the stops to give us a nostalgic experience. I've always had a fascination with details and Jacqueline Wilson does them brilliantly. You can see and taste the foods eaten, feel how important the characters' treasures are to them, fully know your surroundings and understand that even the background characters have intricate stories that could have been focused on. None of this is at the expense of the DRAMA however. The sense of tension was great and reading this booted me out of my slump. Despite being a great sequel though, for me this book had its drawback(s?)

I'd been disappointed by Opal Plumstead, the last JW book I read, because despite implications that she was gay the main character skips off into the sunset-literally-with a boring bloke at the end. I was then SO EXCITED to see that in this latest book JW had chosen to include a lesbian relationship. Despite it being better than nothing, the relationship between Cam and Ms Oliver just wasn't explicit. It's time now for young readers to know that it's okay to be gay and I wish writers would stop beating around the bush about it! Less importantly I would have liked to have seen more depth to Justine Littlewood's character and generally wasn't too bothered about that whole story-line even though I guess it was supposed to be the main one.

I didn't, however, mind that things fit together a little too neatly at the end of the book. I liked the very-unlikely ending and the random little twists of fate made me smile.