Reasons to read my book, numbers 1 to 10

1. It's about three girls in Year Nine
2. You can learn all sorts of secrets about me (I'm Ellie)
3. Ditto my best friend Nadine
4. Ditto my equally best friend Magda
5. You can see if your all-time heroes/heroines match up with mine
6. You can squirm at my most embarrassing moments
7. You can have lots of laughs (mostly at me)
8. You might even cry a bit too
9. PLUS, you get to find out a lot more about BOYS!

I'm not honestly looking forward to reading this book, but will give it a go anyway. I'm reading it as part of the BBC Big Read, and it is #98 in the list. For it to have scored at all means there must be something to like about it, and as I read I'll find out what that is.

January 21st 2004
The End

This book really surprised me. I thought it would be a fluffy, shallow book about teen girls snickering about boys. In fact it was much deeper than I could have imagined, despite the first part of the book being fairly stereotypical.

The real interest came in the relationship between Nadine and her new boyfriend, and how Jacqueline Wilson was able to discuss a disfunctional and possibly dangerous situation with such grace and eloquence. She created girls savvy enough to take care of themselves, and sort out some difficult problems without the need for adult intervention. Very impressive.

The men in the book came off less well, being either obnoxious, dangerous or slightly disturbing geeky stalkers. I wasn't sure that was a good thing, as Ellie eventually caves in to Dan's pressure to get involved. The message that a guy you may not first think is good for you could be the one is fine, it was more Dan's persistent declarations and stalkeresque character traits that I found worrying. If she was trying to write a good guy in dorks clothing she didn't do a great job.

All it all I was very impressed with this book, and more than that it left me relieved that there's an author our there willing to talk about real issues that kids face these days. As sex becomes an issue at increasingly younger ages most adults don't want to think about their own pre-teens being exposed to it, and avoiding the issue doesn't do anything to help young people make decisions. If I were younger I'd be very reassured to know that other people were having the same confusing feelings as me, and if nothing else this book confirms that.

(would have been more if I wasn't so old and jaded)