Jacqueline Wilson - thoughts?

[whattimeisitrightnow]

Posting in AIBU for traffic and also because there's another thread currently running here that's sort of about her works.
I grew up reading JW obsessively, really loved her work. If I'm honest, I'd probably still enjoy reading some of her books as an adult! However, now that I'm older I'm easily able to identify problems with a lot of them: some of it was my own fault, as I read the ones for teens/mature readers when I was too little for them.

That being said (talked about this on the other thread) there's one book, Love Lessons, based on a student-teacher relationship where said relationship is presented in an almost positive light, in a very romantic way. The female student is pretty much blamed entirely for what happens and is kicked out of the school while the teacher keeps his job. The abuse of power isn't explored at all. Generally, I think JW books really seek to give a voice to children, especially those in extremely difficult situations who might feel particularly powerless, and that's commendable. LL seems to be an exception.

What do people think of JW books? Did you enjoy reading them? Do you think they're too 'dark' for children? Did you even find them helpful at times? (I remember the ones with abusive parents really resonating with me, even before I was old enough to articulate why.) And do you let your own kids read them?

I loved her books from about 9-14. The first one I read was The Suitcase Kid, which we all read as a class at school. My favourites were the Girls in Love/Girls Out Late/Girls in Tears books, which were also made in to a TV series.

My 11 yo dd loves them

However I have read love lessons as a young person, and tbh I do find it inappropriate and haven't bought DD that one

Jacqueline Wilson was a formative part of my childhood. I went to a girls' boarding school in Africa and everyone was obsessed with her work. Any time a girl got a new book of her's, we had a system where we'd all have to sign up with our form captain to reserve our turn. It provided a source of kinship for us girls, even if we didn't have the exact same experiences as her characters.

I’m 50/50 with them. I struggled growing up having significantly older parents than my peers and so Bad Girls was a book I really took comfort in. Reading Mandy’s thoughts and worries about losing her parents at a young age and people assuming her parents were her grandparents all really resonated with me because it wasn’t something I’d been able to discuss in real life. I actually remember crying reading it because the book understood so well.

But then I also remember becoming distressed when reading one of JW’s books and getting to a bit about a teenage girl being beaten by her stepdad with his belt. Remember being quite disturbed and telling my mum to get rid of the book as it was horrible

Do any of you discuss books with your children after they have read? Why my children get to certain ages there are books I am going to encourage them to read. One of the main ones (which I mentioned on the other thread) is Louise O’Neills ‘Asking for It’. It’s a teenage book about gang rape and it’s one of the most powerful things I’ve read. I read it as an adult and I cried in the shower afterwards. Obviously when I as my DC to read I will make sure they are emotionally mature enough, but I want them to be able to discuss it after so they understand it in full and why it’s so important and why the ending is so damn horrendous.

I wonder if this would be beneficial with some of these other books, like ‘Love Lessons’? Does the DC understand? What did they think? Maybe these books are good ways of having such open and honest and, more importantly, difficult conversations with our kids?

[quote Inthebelljar]@bettsbattenburg Really? Do you remember which one?[/quote]
No but it was describing a character as either a slag or a slut and the teacher and I agreed it was inappropriate for a year three child.

I’m glad other people have said they’re exploitative. That’s always the word I’ve used to describe them.

I had a pretty traumatic upbringing and well-meaning adults would give me her books to read. I suppose I was a very impressionable child (probably because of my background) but the books left me feeling worse. I’d read about characters feeling desperate, or abandoned, or unloved in my situation and it made me feel like I was supposed to feel the same way. I hadn’t realised anything was wrong with my home life until I read the books and it became clear I was “supposed” to feel bad about it.

I also remember how Ellie in the Girls in Love series was described and drawn exactly as I looked, with lots of lovely descriptions about how fat her legs are and how unattractive she was. I didn’t wear skirts for a long time after reading that.

My grandma felt the same way and once said (regarding adults buying the books for children in the situations depicted) “It seems to me she’s made a nice amount of money off the back of children’s trauma”. I’m not sure if that’s fair- I have no idea how much money she’s earned and for all I know, she could donate a lot of it- but I understand her point.

One book the girl was being sexually assaulted by the mother's boyfriend. Maybe my DD wouldn't have got that, but it was very thinly disguised.
Wait, what? Which book was that? I must not have read it.

Love lessons is definitely problematic.

Sleepovers is tricky because my DD would never even consider that someone would have teased her disabled sister so she found that hard. I think maybe she’s just not ready for them - for some kids, that would be a great talking point.

@KerbsideViolet I'm sorry to hear that they left you feeling worse that's the trouble with books designed to be quite emotive around specific situations, they can either be a comfort because you can relate to them or very upsetting because they might hit too close to home. I think the idea of them is that they raise awareness among younger readers going through certain difficulties that what is happening to them isn't okay, but that's often done at the expense of telling them exactly how they should feel. It would be better to show a range of emotions, or characters who had gone through hardships yet came out the other side with help from others. It's important to show growth and healing as well as the pain itself.

@HeLa1 That's actually so lovely!

@HemulenHouse Yes, sometimes the topics are just too advanced or too overwhelming. Maybe her books in general ought to be aimed at pre-teen/teen readers? She does have some specifically geared toward younger children, but there are a few that fall into the in-between category and are probably too grown for someone in the 7-10 age range.

*too grown up

I hated my daughter reading JW's books. I was furious that a librarian introduced them to her, and she gobbled them up. I didn't mind her reading about traumashe also read and adored Michael Morpurgo, Harry Potter, Judy Blume, Holocaust literaturebut I felt that JW's books were poorly written and exploited trauma in a gratuitious way.

completely agree - poorly written, miserable and very anti family

Just wondering if there are any sort of male equivalent type books?
Just asked my DH and he can only think of Adrian Mole!! Which i would say is aimed equally at both sexes and for an older age anyway.
I know this thread isnt about boys but I just wondered.

My favourite is "Katy"- which is a modernised version of "what Katy did" and portrays the reality of spinal injuries and disability.

Love Lessons was awful, but I think reflects society's views- how many people, for instance, would blame a younger girl for "leading on" (horrible term, I know) an older man? Obviously the blame lies with the teacher, but I think it's a realistic portrayal.

I also liked Bad Girls, although as pointed out, as an adult you start to really sympathise with Mandy's mum.

What does anti family mean?

Also curious about the anti-family thing

Thanks @BertieBotts that’s really helpful

@sadie9

What irks me is that the books are marketed with lovely pink and flowerly 'girly' covers with harmless blurb, when inside it's like an episode of 'Shameless'. You want to have a good flick through the books before giving them to younger readers. It's fairly hard hitting domestic drama with very gritty themes.

An episode of Shameless. You are so right 1😂

The Illustrated Mum is incredible, I think she portrays mental illness in a non-judgemental but realistic way. I read it as an adult 25 years ago and it’s really stayed with me,

Jacqueline Wilson is held in high esteem in our household! My now 14 year old daughter read JW books from around the age of 6/7 upwards. There are so many types available; some for first readers, and they advance from there upwards to teens. If in doubt, read them yourself first! I love her stories; the Hetty Feather stories were very popular with most of her friends in year 5/6 and we took her and her best friend to The Foundling Hospital in London where there was also an exhibition regarding Hetty Feather. It was absolutely brilliant. I find her books educate my children without them realising. My 7 year old has just started reading Twin Tales and one about a sleepover and I'm so pleased she's enjoying them too. JW was a role model to my elder daughter and we subscribed to the magazines too. Some stories are very grown up. Just have a quick look at the blurb to determine when is appropriate. 😊👍

I remember Vicky Angel and the interesting aspect it portrayed as grief.

Looking back, The Bed and Breakfast Star was awful. I didn't notice at the time but her stepfather was horrendous.

My Sister Jodie surprised me. It was my first exprience of suicide.

I

I came out of Hetty Feather sobbing, @Wearywithteens. My granny had to be given away to the Foundling Hospital and the play reflected her experience all too well - being taken away from her mum as a baby, being fostered with a family but then removed from a loving environment again to be trained for service, all the while being taught to be ashamed of the circumstances of her birth, it just made me so sad on her behalf all over again.

I read a few of the early ones when they were relatively new, but I read them at more age 10-12 rather than 7,8,9. As a pretty sheltered kid I wouldnt have enjoyed some of the more difficult themes in them when I was at the younger end of the reading age range.