When Jacqueline Wilson was growing up in England in the 1950s she read everything she could get her hands on. She read fairy stories. She read books about happy children in happy families with wonderful homes.
Wilson didn’t buy it. She yearned for stories that were more real, more messy. And though her mother told her “Get your head out of those books and do something useful,” she did the opposite. She wrote her first “novel” at age nine. She hasn’t stopped since. Her books are known for their honest portrayals of single parents, and illness, and characters who are often uncomfortable in their own skin, and as wacky as they are loveable. It’s a world of bullies and runny noses, burnt cookies, parents who aren’t perfect, and children who make mistakes and survive them. It’s the real kids voice of Jacqueline Wilson.
Guests:
Jacqueline Wilson, Britain’s best-selling children’s author of more than 70 books for young readers.