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My Sister Jodie

Author: Jacqueline Wilson
Creator: Nick Sharratt
Publisher: Doubleday
Category: Book

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Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

14 reviews
Sales Rank: 364

Media: Hardcover
Pages: 247
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.7 x 5.8 x 1.6

ISBN: 0385610122
EAN: 9780385610124
ASIN: 0385610122

Publication Date: March 13, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new book, in stock and dispatched from the UK. Freepost returns.

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Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic, 5 star!!! Buy this Book! June 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

My Sister Jodie is a fantastic book. It is a book that once you pick up you can't put down. I love it! I would recommend it to people who like sudden surprises in books; or just love reading and Jacqueline Wilson. It has an unusual ending that is sudden. I'd probably recommend it for readers aged 10 and up. Defnitley buy this book. It's really interesting!

3 out of 5 stars

Surprisingly Dark June 26, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

I am absolutely convinced that our Jackie's books are becoming steadily more dreary. From the miserable fallout caused by a forbidden (and worryingly twisted) relationship in Love Lessons, to the class-wars waged by the Hannah Montana/Bratz generation in Candyfloss, to the bittersweet ambiguity of Kiss, Wilson's books are revealing an increasingly tense childhood landscape. Children are no longer living in fear of the 'traditional' problems Wilson has written about so provocatively in the likes of Tracy Beaker and the Suitcase kid - now they are exposed to whole host of more 'modern' problems such as the rich/poor divide, our image conscious culture and the constant pressure to conform. And this is shown, very dramatically, in this latest tome.
My Sister Jodie is a break from the norm, even by Wilson's later standards. Set in the isolated and gothic splendour of Melchester Manor, a boarding school, it is a far cry from the surburbia we have got used to in Wilson's books. The setting alone makes the book disconcerting, so it is a relief to discover the plot device of weedy protagonist/peppy role model that we've been exposed to before. This time around our weed is Pearl, a sweet-tempered over-achiever set to blossom in her new surroundings. Our peppy role model is, of course, sister Jodie of the title - a girl whose ginger/bleached ponytail, multiply-pierced ears and penchant for bunking and boozing speak of perhaps the first 'chav' Wilson has ever properly included in her books. As you may have guessed, tough-talking 'chavs' don't go down too well at the well-heeled college and while meek Pearl finds herself popular with her peers, Jodie is repeatedly sneered at by the middle-class boarders. This is all an attack on current culture by Wilson who openly shows her concern for children constantly pressured to look, act, and speak a certain way, and how much money and wordly possession are 'worth'. And in typical Wilson style, she reveals that if this trend continues, only tragedy will follow....
Despite its noble message, I couldn't help thinking that MSJ was a fairly sedentary outing. Candyfloss dealt with the middle class/working class divide in a much more humorous way, Midnight provided a more interesting example of a doomed sibling relationship and one does not need to venture any further than the fabulous 'Girls...' series to be confronted with thought-provoking material concerning image. My Sister Jodie becomes swallowed by its own dark setting, and has a portentious quality throughout that I found surprising considering Wilson's usual light touch. Jodie's insistance on a black 'funeral parlour' style room, her joking to her mum to 'mourn her little corpse daughter', the death of one of a pair of badger cubs and the locked gates and perpertually cold tower room all reek of a foreboding and morbidity that Wilson's comparitively cheery tomes usually steer well clear of. All the imagery is alarmingly heavy handed as well, though not all children or young people would be aware of this. Aside from this, MSJ is very pedestrian - not an awful lot happens. Jodie complains, Jodie runs off, Pearl is sad, Pearl is happy...the whole book seems to mark time up until the penultimate chapter when the tragedy occurs. It's almost as if Wilson just wanted to write another book about an untimely death, realised she could never best the wonderous black humour, pathos and despair of Vicky Angel and gave up, rather focussing on a horrible end rather than an engaging story line. That said, it is not an awful book, but as one fellow reviewer puts it 'it is not unputdownable'. Very true. This lacks the heart of Wilson's other books and it suffers for it. Re-read Vicky Angel if you want a book about death, re-read Girls in Love if you want a book about image, and re-read Candyfloss if you want to read about the rich/poor divide. Nuff said.

1 out of 5 stars

Don't buy this for your daughter !!! June 5, 2008
4 out of 9 found this review helpful

I am absolutely apalled at the ending in this book. My daughter (aged 10) has read many other Jacqueline Wilson books and enjoyed them. Last night she was traumatised after reading the horrific ending. I can't understand why a childrens book needs to have such graphic death at the end and a horrible discription of her sister looking at the body.

This review has one star because it isn't possible to give none.

5 out of 5 stars

Too good a book to miss. April 30, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This book was exiting, hilarious and sad.You start to feel as if you know the characters better than your best friends.I read this book in one day. As soon as I started this book, I didn't put down. Don't miss out on reading this book, it's excellent!!!

by A age 11

5 out of 5 stars

My sister Jodie April 27, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

I read this book and it was fabulose she described the charecters very good and made them come real, but it was a VERY trajic ending i was so sad i almost cried

I read the book in less than 24 hours about 12 hours
I would reckomend this book for the older age group but in a way it encourages kids to be like Jodie.
Still it was a good,funy,sad book you should read it.
Elenna Williams age 11