i've been meaning to do this video for about seven years and it's very weird that that's
not an exaggeration i went through a period of time in about 2011 when i was reviewing a lot of
jacqueline wilson's books independently and then i thought you know what i'm going gonna add it to
my list to do my top five i would not be writing today i don't think were not for jaclyn wilson
like many people of my generation i binged read her books when i was about eight or nine years old
and didn't stop reading them i've never stopped reading them so i feel like the first thing that
will become quickly apparent is that none of these books are recent releases so there is a
nostalgic element there but i feel like my reasons for putting them in my list are also fair so we're
going to start with what i believe was the first slightly grown up book that i read and that's
girls in tears japanese wilson's girls series deal with slightly more adult topics i think they're
her first foray into more teenage fiction says girls in tears girls that late girls in love and
girls under pressure girls under pressure was nearly at the top of the girls list for me but
i think girls in tears i had the fondest memory of because it was the first time i went to the
library by myself and i got a big batch of books and i remember girls on tears was at the very top
of that batch then we have one that i feel like is making a comeback i could be wrong in saying
this but i think it's being turned into a film it might even be a recently released film this is the
suitcase kid and the suitcase kid runs away and she has a suitcase and she has a slovenian rabbit
and i think the reason i love this for the most part is because i had slovenian toys as
well when i was growing up and i had a sylvanian rabbit so i could imagine myself being this girl
and obviously it tackles issues that a lot of jacqueline wilson's books tackle about children
who either feel unloved or they're pushed away from their family or they feel like they're in
the wrong place they want to run away they want to escape and it deals with this and a lot of her
books do and the reason i particularly wanted to put this one in is because i remember there
was a map in the book and i thought that was very clever and i thought it really allowed the reader
i thought this one was like eight years old really allowed the reader to be able to envision the
character's journey the next one i love because i'm a spiritualist i've read this one twice
i think but definitely no more than two times and this is vicky angel and at the very beginning of
the book this girl the character the protagonist's friend dies and she comes back as an angel
and it's definitely unlike girls in tears which is aimed at a slightly more mature reader vicky angel
is actually aimed at the child reader and it's a really good way of getting children to kind
of learn about death and realize that death is something that can happen at any moment and you
could be struck by grief and our protagonist goes through that grief stage and obviously
being a spiritualist i really like that aspect of it even when i was tiny and not a self-confessed
spiritualist i always loved the concept of angels in my second spot i wanted to put the first one
that i ever read and that is sleepovers sleepovers is as far as i remember the first japanese wilson
book i read and then it was the worry website and then it was the mum minder i believe
sleepovers is about this group of friends they're called the alphabet girls because their names are
amy bella chloe daisy and emily and they have a sleepover but one of the girls is a bit horrible
and there's a sister who has a disability off the top of my head i can't remember what that is
because i haven't read it in a long time but it's kind of teaching children to be nice to be friends
but also that in times you're going to encounter people who are slightly different to you and you
shouldn't be nasty and actually even the nasty people are vulnerable and have insecurities and
often they're only nasty because they are insecure in their way of putting up a barrier so i thought
it had a great message i don't know if i perceived any of that when i read it for the first time
i just liked it i think at that age because it was about sleepovers and clicks and and
doing all these things that you dream of doing when you're a little girl with your friends
and getting everybody around for all of these birthday parties so i think there's a lot that
could be gained out of sleepovers and number one is not only my favorite jaclyn wilson book but
probably the one that influenced me the most when i was growing up lola rose lola rose just seeing
that cover that original first edition cover just fills me with tears i remember reading this book
about a little girl and her mother and her younger brother in the win they have a small i think it
was a scratch card win and in the beginning of the book they're going out spending this
money lavishly getting denim jackets with pink fur trim i thought it was very fashionable at the time
and all these chocolate bars and magazines and it's kind of life every reader
wanted to live but then things take a very dark turn and it's the thing is one of jacqueline
wilson's largest in terms of page numbers certainly at the time and after i read this
i wrote my own novel probably about a seven or eight page short story i can't remember and
i gave it to my teacher and she read it out to the class and at one point she was like i can't
read this to my class of 11 year olds because i started talking about um my character's mother
was having an affair or something like that and obviously i'd perceive these more adult
ideas out of lola rose so it was quite a step up in a very adult book when compared to things
like you know the mum minder and suitcase kids and things so for me i read it and then wrote my own
short story and that that power that influence that jacqueline wilson had over me at that age
is one of the most pivotal aspects of my childhood had i not read those books and then found myself
inspired to write i may never have worked on my craft and become the author that i am today
you