This book is an amazing book to read and tragedy in the end of the book. Recommend this book to people aged 12+ due to language used. ( )

Slightly underwhelmed by this Jaqueline Wilson, which just seemed a bit too bleak. I mean, JW is misery lit, but they usually have some light of hope in the midst of their realism. Tracey Beaker has a hard time in the kids home and learns she has to stop expecting her mum to come back and save the day, but gets fostered by Cam and escapes. Vicky’s friend deals with the trauma of Vicky dying, but eventually gets a better understanding of her own guilt and her own grief and moves on. This book never really found its swing. A large dollop of it is a story of younger-sister (Pearl) moving out of the shadow of older-sister (Jodie), discovering her own skills and friends and interests, and learning to thrive at a boarding school after an inner city comp. There’s badger watching and exploring locked attics, and bobbing for apples and birthday parties. And that’s the bit of the story that is engaging and rich, if a little bit superficial and predictable, but unfortunately JW is trying to write the story of Jodie, who doesn’t settle at the new school, is bullied by the other girls, and eventually dies in a tragic fall from the tower. And for me, that really didn’t work. It felt very rushed – the tragedy occurs within the last 20 pages of the book – and it was also just a genuinely grim and grubby character arc. Jodie is Trouble, even though Trouble with a good heart, and there is no hope or redemption – she becomes more and more miserable and isolated, as she grows away from her sister, falls out with her crush (who is Evil), and even messes up the relationship with the little kids in the school, who had been her bright relief. And then she dies. The End. And I don’t think it’s just that… the book skirts really near to suggesting that Jodie is driven to suicide by everything that happens to her (and Pearl is an unreliable narrator, so who knows?) but my reading was that it mostly comes down on the side of ‘she was wearing stupid heels and trying to play a prank and it went horribly wrong’. Which is an OK story to tell, but it takes even more of Jodie’s autonomy away from her, and also leaves a slightly funny taste which is oddly almost pro-bullies – ‘well, boys and girls, some people claim kids are driven to kill themselves by bullying, but actually sometimes it’s just an accident, and not really suicide at all’. Plus, the miserable Jodie story-arc then destroys the Pearl story-arc – in the last 10 pages, all that Pearl has achieved (moving school, doing well academically, making friends with Harvey, seeing badgers, starting to draw the crippled headmistress out of her shell) is suddenly negated – the book ends with ‘So we left the school and everyone we’d met immediately, went back to the city, and were sad. Well, mum had another baby so that sort of made it a bit OK’. I guess that’s pretty realistic – the death of your daughter/sister _is_ going to mess up a lot of your personal growth for quite some time – but it made the whole book feel very bleak and pointless. ( )

First person narrative. Sibling love/relationship. Jodie is the beloved older sister of Pearl, the narrator. Their parents get jobs as the cook and custodian of a boarding school -- and the girls' lives change. Pearl is smart and shy, Jodie is street smart and out-there. Jodie is also into puberty and rebellion -- and attracted to danger.

SPOILER: There's an off-limits tower and in the end Jodie falls off it -- and dies.... just as their mother has an unexpected pregnancy -- so a new sister is born...

tear-jerker.... ( )

I love this book. It is a really touching story which seems to speaks to you. ( )

well i think this book, my sister jodie is a great book because i have a sister. and because it is really nice to see the perspective of another sisters life. and i love how this story explains everything they say and some bits are funny,gross and some cheaky things. by gabrielle mcmahon ( )