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A review by lucychanning
Dancing the Charleston by Jacqueline Wilson
4.0
*4.5 stars
Jacqueline Wilson is purely amazing at writing children's characters and captures them so well. She also has a brillaint talent for writing Children's historical ficition. It's been a while since I read a Jacqueline Wilson book, probably about 5-8 years ago, so I was a little worried going into this that I wasn't going to enjoy this as much as I would have years ago when I was a child. But I am pleased to say I enjoyed it. A lot. I really enjoyed Mona's character. She was flawed but still incredibly likeable. And Mr Benjamin was a great charcater too! Generally, all the characters were well developed.
The pace was good. For the majority of the book, it went at a good pace and I never once felt bored and like things were dragging.
However, my two problems I found with this book were due to the ending. One of those problems was that it felt a little bit rushed. I can't state the specific amount of pages in which the 'secret' came out, but it didn't feel like a lot. At all. (I actually guessed the 'secret' at one pint but this didn't hinder my enjoyment. I think as a child, I wouldn't have seen this coming at all.) My second problem was the fact Mona's friends were heavily prominent throughout the story and then at the end, they weren't mentioned at all? I wouldn't have minded whether they stayed friends or not, but it just felt odd not having them mentioned in the conclusions.
Overall, though, this was thoroughly enjoyable book and would definitely recommend!
Jacqueline Wilson is purely amazing at writing children's characters and captures them so well. She also has a brillaint talent for writing Children's historical ficition. It's been a while since I read a Jacqueline Wilson book, probably about 5-8 years ago, so I was a little worried going into this that I wasn't going to enjoy this as much as I would have years ago when I was a child. But I am pleased to say I enjoyed it. A lot. I really enjoyed Mona's character. She was flawed but still incredibly likeable. And Mr Benjamin was a great charcater too! Generally, all the characters were well developed.
The pace was good. For the majority of the book, it went at a good pace and I never once felt bored and like things were dragging.
However, my two problems I found with this book were due to the ending. One of those problems was that it felt a little bit rushed. I can't state the specific amount of pages in which the 'secret' came out, but it didn't feel like a lot. At all. (I actually guessed the 'secret' at one pint but this didn't hinder my enjoyment. I think as a child, I wouldn't have seen this coming at all.) My second problem was the fact Mona's friends were heavily prominent throughout the story and then at the end, they weren't mentioned at all? I wouldn't have minded whether they stayed friends or not, but it just felt odd not having them mentioned in the conclusions.
Overall, though, this was thoroughly enjoyable book and would definitely recommend!