LoveReading4Kids Says
Bestselling Jacqueline Wilson tells a fairy tale story of the unlikely intertwining of two very different families against a strong and realistic background. Destiny is growing up poor with her mum who does three jobs and struggles to pay the mortgage; Sunset lives in pampered luxury with her parents whose desire for celebrity status overshadows real family happiness. But the two girls are linked by their celebrity Dad. How can they get together and, when they do, how can they persuade all their parents that they really are great friends and sisters?
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Jacqueline Wilson Press Reviews
Review of ‘Little Darlings’ by Books for Keeps [4 stars]
After her foray back to Victorian times in Hetty Feather, Jacqueline Wilson returns with a tale of 21st-century culture that could not be more contemporary. Ageing rock star Danny Kilman is still famous enough to get parts in films and appear in happy family photoshoots for ‘Hi!’ magazine. Sunset, his daughter, hates the celebrity limelight however, and longs for privacy and peace instead of paps and rowing parents. Then she meets Destiny, a girl from a rundown estate who looks uncannily like her, and is named after a long-forgotten Danny Kilman song. The two girls begin an unlikely friendship, and support each other as the glitter starts to come off the rock star lifestyle. Ultimately, the real reason behind their close bond is revealed.
Little Darlings is another winning Jacqueline Wilson story, which her fans will devour like celeb-obsessed readers with the latest issue of Hello, particularly with Nick Sharratt’s lovely ‘Hi!’ magazine parody on the cover. It’s not just fluff however as Wilson also provides young wannabes with food for thought about the nature of fame, and the downsides of celebrity, as she probes beyond the groomed public faces of her characters. Despite the rather engineered coincidence employed to bring them together, the moment when Destiny performs with her father thus revealing her paternity to the world, is genuinely moving.
Where Little Darlings occasionally falls down is in the trueness of her young heroines’ voices, particularly Sunset. ‘I fashioned her a little apron out of a tissue and she bustled about the house, diligently dusting with her paw’ is how she describes Sunset playing with one of her teddies. Though this is a 10-year-old who has been forced to grow up fast when she doesn’t really want to, her vocabulary is sometimes over-sophisticated, and her turn of phrase harks back almost to Hetty Feather. One ‘old-fashioned’ element I would have liked more of was the letter correspondence between Sunset and Destiny which evolves because Destiny does not have e-mail.
Still, with Destiny and Sunset only just beginning their public lives as sisters, you wouldn’t bet against there one day being a sequel to this pleasurable novel.
About Jacqueline Wilson
Jacqueline Wilson wrote her first novel when she was nine years old, and she has been writing ever since. She is now one of Britain’s bestselling and most beloved children’s authors. She has written over 100 books and is the creator of characters such as Tracy Beaker and Hetty Feather. More than forty million copies of her books have been sold. As well as winning many awards for her books, including the Children’s Book of the Year, Jacqueline is a former Children’s Laureate, and in 2008 she was appointed a Dame. Jacqueline is also a great reader, and has amassed over 20,000 books, along with her famous collection of silver rings.
Jacqueline Wilson was our Guest Editor in February 2012. Click here to download an interview with Jacqueline.
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