Tracy Beaker is a fatherless girl who lives in a children's home; she has been fostered twice and returned twice and she is aware that she is getting close to the age at which she will never be fostered; she fears being institutionalised.
She is very intelligent and incredibly tough and feisty and not at all cute. Quite often she doesn't cry.
It is an interesting story in that it starts with Tracy filling in details about herself so it is almost life a character template. The story as such begins later when a children's author visits the home and encourages Tracy to continue writing what has become her 'autobiography'.
Some great moments:
"I told her I didn't care a bit, though I had these silly watery eyes. I didn't cry though. I don't ever cry. Sometimes people think I do, but it's my hayfever." (p 27)
"It was down there on the page in black and white. Well, not your actual black and white, more your smudgy blue biro, but you know what I mean." (p 30)
"I'm slavering at the thought. Yes, that's what those little marks are on the page. Slavers, I don't cry. I don't ever cry." (p 35)
"weirdo comfy walking shoes, not so much Hush Puppy as Shut-your-face Hound Dog." (p 45)
A great character. April 2020; 156 pages
Books by Jacqueline Wilson reviewed in this blog:
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