This post is the entire reason why I made this account. I would like to clarify a few things - I'm 17 years old, a guy and not wanting to start a family right now (if ever), I would, however, like to explain to some of the parents on here who don't quite seem to understand the underlying reasons why JW and her books mean a lot to so many kids.
A lot of parents on here are concerned because she has books that begin with the phrase "I hate my dad" or talk about taboo subjects for children, but it would seem that you are all missing the point. In the book that begins with the sentence "I hate my dad", her dad is a man who practically refuses to let the family do anything fun, calls her sister and her mum fat and is borderline abusive. Yes, that specific book has a lot of other underlying issues but even still.
JW books taught me that abuse, even from parents, shouldn't be tolerated. It allowed me to feel empathy for children who were in similar situations to the children in the books.
Another fantastic example of a book by her explaining that abusive parents shouldn't be tolerated is Cookie, a book in which a young girl is dealing with not only bullying but an abusive father.
If I did not read Jaqueline Wilson's books, I probably would have thought that the trauma I experienced at such a young age was normal and I wouldn't have told anyone about it.
Parents like to shy away from books with subjects like abuse for their children because they don't want their child to be exposed to it. Here's the hard truth - in this day and age, with social media and the internet, kids need to be brought up knowing that certain things are wrong. They need to be told that if someone harasses them online it is not okay. Trauma can be experienced at any age - but when a child under 9 years old experiences repeated or severe trauma their personality doesn't merge as the brain decides that it is necessary to cope, and they can develop what's known as Dissociative Identity Disorder - or DID (also known as mulitple personality disorder)