10 great reads for curious children
JACQUELINE WILSON cuddles up to her seven-year-old rescue pet, Jacob the cat. Two-year-old Jackson the terrier is asleep on the floor.
“They are my writing companions,” the best-selling, multi-award winning former Children’s Laureate tells me.
The Tracy Beaker author, who was made a Dame for her services to children’s literature, launches her new book, Clover Moon, this week.
It’s an uplifting and touching adventure about a Victorian waif who runs away from an unhappy home.
And it is the latest in a long line of achievements for the 70-year-old.
Her books have sold more than 40 million copies in the UK alone, been translated into 34 languages and have even been screened on TV.
A third series of the hugely popular CBBC TV adaptation of Hetty Feather will air next year.
Jacqueline is emphatic when asked if, as a 17-year-old venturing into magazine journalism with Sunday Post publisher DC Thomson, she ever imagined she would be so successful. “Never!” says the mum-of-one. “In those days I was living in a Church of Scotland girls’ hostel on Dundee’s Constitution Terrace.
“I could never have dreamed of the success I have now. It’s astonishing.”
Jacqueline says her DC Thomson bosses told her they named the 1960s Jackie magazine, to which she was a contributor, after her.
“They may have just been being kind, but it is a lovely thought,” she says.
And she smiles: “When I give talks and aunties and grandparents are present, I only have to mention the Jackie and there is immediate interest and warm memories.”
Her latest book, set in the 1800s, is refreshing in its necessary avoidance of social media.
And she confesses that as “an older lady” she finds the concept of selfies and text talk strange.
She has never shied away from exploring tough topics such as grief, divorce, adoption and bullying, and quite clearly prefers the good, oldfashioned human approach.
And in this fast paced hi-tech world, she is encouraging families to read together.
“Reading with your children and grandchildren is a lovely experience.
“It’s wonderful for them to cuddle up with a good book and a grown-up they trust and who loves them.”