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A review by theanitaalvarez
The Suitcase Kid by Jacqueline Wilson
4.0
This was my first experience reading Jacqueline Wilson’s work. My short research on her (meaning I looked her up in Wikipedia), revealed that she is something like a big thing in English-speaking countries. I’ll see if I can find her books here in Spanish or something, because I really liked The Suitcase Kid .
The protagonist of this story is Andy. Her parents have just gotten a divorce, and it doesn’t seem to be an amicable one, either. Each of them has gotten a new partner (and it is heavily implied that her father was cheating on her mother with Carrie, his new partner) and Andy has suddenly lots of step-siblings that she has to deal with. Whenever they are together, they begin fighting. Usually about Andy herself, but she seems to be an excuse to bicker about everything. So, the story begins when they both try to force Andy to choose with whom she’d prefer to live.
That’s in the first pages. And I’ll say that I was very annoyed by her parents. Okay, I get that they are getting a divorce. There’s no shame on that, of course. The thing that should shame they is the fact that they are completely ignoring Andy, except for when they are trying to “buy” her love. I mean, they are perfectly nice to her when they’re alone. But they still cannot help mentioning how much better they are than the other. Seriously, people: stop fighting and trying to be better than the other AND TAKE CARE OF YOUR KID.
For most of the book, Andy is feeling pretty much miserable. Her parents fight at every chance they got and she feels as if it was her fault. And she is trying to move on from the fact that she wants them to be together and live as a family again. She knows it to be impossible, but her parents are not making her moving on any easier. The sad thing is that nobody seemed to really care much about her and her feelings. Everyone kept saying things along the lines of “suck it up”.
Instead of talking about this stuff with her, they just avoid the topic and keep on acting as ever. Which felt pretty unfair for poor Andy. All those changes are indeed too much for any kid to take on, and nobody seemed to realize it. Everyone was more focused on their own problems.
Still, the book ended up pretty sweetly. The ending is not closed, but it’s clear that Andy has began to have a more positive outlook on life. If things cannot be changed (because she has come to terms with her parents never getting back together), the best thing that you can do is to make the best of it. If you have to deal with annoying step-siblings, try to make things better. In the end, Andy also realizes that she has the power to change things. She tries to be nicer to Katie, her mother’s boyfriend’s daughter, and she gets results.
Even if this is a kids’ book, I think that a lot of adults could benefit from it. It’s so easy to overlook children’s feelings and their complexity. This book is a good reminder that children can be hurt and see things in their own way. And they, of course, need their time to process the changes in their lives at their own pace.
The protagonist of this story is Andy. Her parents have just gotten a divorce, and it doesn’t seem to be an amicable one, either. Each of them has gotten a new partner (and it is heavily implied that her father was cheating on her mother with Carrie, his new partner) and Andy has suddenly lots of step-siblings that she has to deal with. Whenever they are together, they begin fighting. Usually about Andy herself, but she seems to be an excuse to bicker about everything. So, the story begins when they both try to force Andy to choose with whom she’d prefer to live.
That’s in the first pages. And I’ll say that I was very annoyed by her parents. Okay, I get that they are getting a divorce. There’s no shame on that, of course. The thing that should shame they is the fact that they are completely ignoring Andy, except for when they are trying to “buy” her love. I mean, they are perfectly nice to her when they’re alone. But they still cannot help mentioning how much better they are than the other. Seriously, people: stop fighting and trying to be better than the other AND TAKE CARE OF YOUR KID.
For most of the book, Andy is feeling pretty much miserable. Her parents fight at every chance they got and she feels as if it was her fault. And she is trying to move on from the fact that she wants them to be together and live as a family again. She knows it to be impossible, but her parents are not making her moving on any easier. The sad thing is that nobody seemed to really care much about her and her feelings. Everyone kept saying things along the lines of “suck it up”.
Instead of talking about this stuff with her, they just avoid the topic and keep on acting as ever. Which felt pretty unfair for poor Andy. All those changes are indeed too much for any kid to take on, and nobody seemed to realize it. Everyone was more focused on their own problems.
Still, the book ended up pretty sweetly. The ending is not closed, but it’s clear that Andy has began to have a more positive outlook on life. If things cannot be changed (because she has come to terms with her parents never getting back together), the best thing that you can do is to make the best of it. If you have to deal with annoying step-siblings, try to make things better. In the end, Andy also realizes that she has the power to change things. She tries to be nicer to Katie, her mother’s boyfriend’s daughter, and she gets results.
Even if this is a kids’ book, I think that a lot of adults could benefit from it. It’s so easy to overlook children’s feelings and their complexity. This book is a good reminder that children can be hurt and see things in their own way. And they, of course, need their time to process the changes in their lives at their own pace.