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A review by motherbooker
My Mum Tracy Beaker by Nick Sharratt, Jacqueline Wilson
4.0
From my review at motherbookerblog.com:
"My Mum Tracy Beaker is full of all the things that have made Wilson such a popular writer with young people. It is fun, relatable, and isn’t afraid to show us that real life, quite often, sucks. Tracy still dreams of her fairytale ending but Jess has lower expectations. She is quite content in her little flat with her mother. It’s not the perfect life but it is a happy one. And that’s the point that Wilson has always tried to bring across to her readers. Not all lives are the same but there is the same potential for happiness out there for us all. You just need to keep looking for it. Reading this book brought back all those old feelings and made me feel like a kid again. It’s something that people of all ages can and should enjoy.
However, it can’t be denied that at my more mature age I had some issues with Wilson’s book. There was a lot of repetition in the narrative and a lot of recapping from previous stories that I found quite tedious. I realise that she needed to introduce new readers to Tracy and co but it seemed to go on a bit too much. Then there’s the LGBTQ storyline which I felt was a bit pathetic. Instead of openly discussing a character’s sexuality, Wilson has her characters talk about it in innuendos. I feel like an author who is so willing to push certain boundaries should have been more willing to include an openly gay presence in her books. Instead, it is pushed into the background. It feels like a missed opportunity.
The story is quite predictable and obvious but I can’t really fault that. It’s written for a specific audience that I’m not part of. Yes, there are aspects of the story that solely cater to the grown-up readers but, ultimately, this is a story meant to be enjoyed by children. As such, it does everything it needs to do. It is sweet, funny, and drama filled. New and old fans of Tracy Beaker will enjoy everything about this and, hopefully, it will introduce plenty of new readers to the joy of Jacqueline Wilson’s books."
"My Mum Tracy Beaker is full of all the things that have made Wilson such a popular writer with young people. It is fun, relatable, and isn’t afraid to show us that real life, quite often, sucks. Tracy still dreams of her fairytale ending but Jess has lower expectations. She is quite content in her little flat with her mother. It’s not the perfect life but it is a happy one. And that’s the point that Wilson has always tried to bring across to her readers. Not all lives are the same but there is the same potential for happiness out there for us all. You just need to keep looking for it. Reading this book brought back all those old feelings and made me feel like a kid again. It’s something that people of all ages can and should enjoy.
However, it can’t be denied that at my more mature age I had some issues with Wilson’s book. There was a lot of repetition in the narrative and a lot of recapping from previous stories that I found quite tedious. I realise that she needed to introduce new readers to Tracy and co but it seemed to go on a bit too much. Then there’s the LGBTQ storyline which I felt was a bit pathetic. Instead of openly discussing a character’s sexuality, Wilson has her characters talk about it in innuendos. I feel like an author who is so willing to push certain boundaries should have been more willing to include an openly gay presence in her books. Instead, it is pushed into the background. It feels like a missed opportunity.
The story is quite predictable and obvious but I can’t really fault that. It’s written for a specific audience that I’m not part of. Yes, there are aspects of the story that solely cater to the grown-up readers but, ultimately, this is a story meant to be enjoyed by children. As such, it does everything it needs to do. It is sweet, funny, and drama filled. New and old fans of Tracy Beaker will enjoy everything about this and, hopefully, it will introduce plenty of new readers to the joy of Jacqueline Wilson’s books."