Children's Laureate is Jacqueline Wilson!

[Janh]

She crossed my mind as a strong contender when roisin asked if anyone knew who the new one would be, but I didn't really think she would get it - I'm very pleased, I think she's fab

Ha! We've been moaning about it here!

It never occurred to me that she would get it, and I'm very disappointed. I'd have written a list of twenty successful contemporary children's authors and not included her.

Who would be on your list roisin?

DD (8yo) loves Michael Morpurgo and Morris Gleitzman as well as the inevitable JKR. Her school is currently running a bookworm scheme which leads them to the classics (5 Children and It is her current book). She's not too fond of JW - too girly, I think.

Jenny Nimmo would be top for me, I think. But she tends to be very publicity-shy, so I'm not sure she'd even be up for it.

Others: Eoin Colfer, Anthony Horowitz, Caroline Lawrence, Terry Deary, Nick Arnold, JKR, Malorie Blackman, Garth Nix (but is he Australian?), Peter Dickinson, Julia Donaldson, ...

That's just off the top of my head, I've probably missed off some obvious ones. (I'm sure some of them are not British though!)

There are others who I think would do a fantastic job, but probably have insufficient reputation/publishing as yet.

Dd (7) is a great fan of Tracey Beaker, originally because of the TV programmes, endlessly repeated on CBBC. We have indulged her by subscribing to the Tracey Beaker magazine, which is a lot better than most IMO.

What do you think of what she's done for the public image of children in care (Tracey Beaker is in a care home, and is on and off with a foster mother)? I think it can only be good, but happy to stand corrected.

What has she done? Well she's made reading popular for a start, gave her name to Jackie magazine, gave a fantastically inspirational talk about how to start writing at Folkestone Literary Festival a couple of years ago...

Do I think she's the best children's author ever? Of course not. But hey, I find Michael Morpurgo frightfully pedantic and stylistically narrow (though falls well into NC teaching). Yes I know I'm the only one and should be shot.

For me it comes back to class and education (unfortunately). My kids will never need JW to get them reading because I do that for them. They do however admire her ability to tell a good story. The Children's Laureate needs to go beyond class. While there is a lack of relevant texts for first generation book readers to enjoy, we will always have a reading underclass. Anyone who can encourage children from non-reading families to join a library, regardless of whether they approach difficult issues in a sensitive manner, gets my vote.

We middle class educated folk can introduce our children to Isabelle Allende et al from an early age. The Children's Laureate imo is not intended to encourage us.

I loved Jacquline Wilson books when i was at school - she has only just started writing them then, but i thought they were great. Even got to meet her as she came to the school once - got her autograph too! God - to think this was 8 years ago at least!!!

I think Jacqueline Wilson deserves to be Children's Laureate. My dd loves her books (she fires her imagination). Of course I buy her the ones that are age-appropriate, same as for any author. I read books at primary age that were far scarier than JW, eg. The Waterbabies.
I really don't believe much in censorship for the arts and think that children take what they want from literature.