Baby Love

Product Information

This book was brilliant in that it showed the judgement and pressures of teenage pregnancy in the 1960's, then cleverly linking back to present date with an article at the end about sexual consent in the present day. A trip to the local swimming pool begins with trepidation as Nina wears a bikini and a European holiday tan, and Laura squeezes into her old bathing suit with an anchor on her flat chest. Sent away to save them from shame, Laura meets girls just like herself, whose families have given up on them - and they become a family for each other at the most difficult time in all their lives.

Jacqueline has not stopped making tweens cry since i stopped reading her books which means she is at least consistant. Laura herself does grow as a character when she thinks about the expectation placed on her vs Leon, but that is briefly stated and then never mentioned again really. Jacqueline Wilson wrote her first novel when she was nine years old, and she has been writing ever since. Shame about Nina and Daniel (both of whom I really liked) but at the same time, I couldn't see how Laura and their lives would fit together again after everything. Once her parents find out, it’s her mum that’s the leading party in talking about the shame she has brought upon the family.At only 14, still very naive and incredibly homesick, Laura meets other girls her mother would label “Rough,” or “Tarts” or “Unsuitable,” who in fact are caring, and friendly. Her prefab home is undoubtedly the nicest in their area, but still is in a street dubbed 'Shantytown' by her Grammar School classmates. I truly felt I was there and was so heartily routing for Laura, I had no idea if this was going to be a tragedy or not but can safely say my heart soared and was full by the end of reading this book. I will always wonder at her ability to understand and translate such tough subjects and emotions into her words so beautifully. Met her on Saturday and she is just how she seems in her interviews which is a pleasant surprise i dont think my inner child would ever have healed if she was a bitch.

Moreover, the story is followed by two notes from Adoption UK and the Schools Consent Project for anyone who may have been affected by the tale. The Illustrated Mum won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award, the 1999 Children’s Book of the Year at the British Book Awards and was also shortlisted for the 1999 Whitbread Children’s Book Award. I felt that the book ended very abruptly which was a shame because it built so well and we got to know the characters really deeply then it just suddenly ended. Gripping, emotional and the novel also includes a series of help lines if anyone has been affected by incidents in the narrative. I read this book in a couple of hours and i did nearly cry but only at a really tragic bit about literal rape so dont read this book if thats a touchy subject.Wilson did an excellent job of framing Laura to the reader, so when the encounter with Leon happens, you truly believe she had no idea of what had just occurred.

The narrative totally draws you in and the storyline keeps you guessing where life will take Laura and Kathleen. In 2002 Jacqueline was awarded the OBE for services to literacy in schools and from 2005 to 2007 she was the Children’s Laureate.This book is dark but real and I was captivated by all of the themes surrounding the main plot (don’t worry I won’t give away any spoilers! The story totally involves you and immerses yourself into young Laura's life as she experiences being pregnant in the 1960s.

The fact that no one really asked her how she got pregnant, and even she couldn’t recognise that she’d been assaulted shows how much things have changed but also in some ways, stayed the same. What follows is a well-paced, emotional and intermittently heartwarming journey, one which will teach the value of families and friendships look like, the importance of consent and a good sex education.

This a few months down the line leads to Laura discovering she is pregnant and as the blurb states, it ends up with her being sent away. I’m not sure if the author is now writing for a different type of teenager than 20 years ago or if I am reading her book as a person who has experienced things I never expected 20 years ago but this did not feel like a ‘teen read’.