The Illustrated Mum by Jacqueline Wilson

In the background the two mothers renew their friendship each year, and Lauren, Belly’s mother, provides support for her friend-if not, unfortunately, for the children-in Susannah’s losing battle with breast cancer. Belly’s dawning awareness of her sexuality and that of the boys is a strong theme, as is the sense of summer as a separate and reflective time and place: Readers get glimpses of kisses on the beach, her best friend’s flirtations during one summer’s visit, a first date. Han’s leisurely paced, somewhat somber narrative revisits several beach-house summers in flashback through the eyes of now 15-year-old Isabel, known to all as Belly.īelly measures her growing self by these summers and by her lifelong relationship with the older boys, her brother and her mother’s best friend’s two sons. The author doesn’t shy away from the difficulties, but there’s humor here, too. They’ll feel for these two very realistically drawn girls and hope for the best along with them. The very satisfying ending-Dolphin connects with the father she’s never seen and maybe, after hospitalization, Mum will get better-is pat, but readers won’t care. A particularly bizarre behavior by Mum forces Dolphin, buoyed by a newfound, supportive friendship with a classmate who’s also an outsider, to take drastic action. When Star’s father invites the girls to live with him, only his own daughter accepts, and Dolphin must make things work at home. More often than not, they’ve had to care for her, and they strive mightily to make allowances and appear normal. Beautiful, odd, and very tattooed Marigold loves her two daughters, ten-year-old Dolphin and 12-year-old Star-progeny of two different brief relationships-but can barely take care of them responsibly.

Wilson admirably keeps things upbeat as she explores two sisters’ coping with a mother who is careening further into mental illness and alcoholism.

The Illustrated Mum by Jacqueline Wilson