Baby Love

Product Information

Set in the 1960’s, Jacqueline Wilson transports you back in time, to the days of Elvis and the ‘swinging sixties’. 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. One of Jacqueline’s most successful and enduring creations has been the famous Tracy Beaker, who first appeared in 1991 in The Story of Tracy Beaker. Her prefab home is undoubtedly the nicest in their area, but still is in a street dubbed 'Shantytown' by her Grammar School classmates.

Jacqueline is also a great reader, and has amassed over 20,000 books, along with her famous collection of silver rings. I enjoyed the story, I thought it was well-paced and one thing I’m extremely happy about is the time we got to spend with Laura before she finds out she is pregnant, as we really get to know her. I knew it would be well written and sensitively tackled as Jacqueline Wilson so often does and I knew it would be handled well.

Windows users should also consider upgrading to Internet Explorer 11, Microsoft Edge, or switching to Firefox or Chrome. With hard working parents who are proud of her achievements, she still dreams of a life like Nina’s. 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. In the last year I've found a love for YA books and I hope this year I will rekindle my love for more of Wilson's work. Attending the school on a scholarship due to her excellent grades, Laura hides her address from Nina as long as she can.

I wish we could have found out what happened to all the other girls we encounter at the home, and the ending was a bit unrealistic, but Laura's story is a touching one nevertheless. It horrified me to think that no one had ever spoken to her about sex, even getting her period was a very short-lived conversation. I haven’t read a Jacqueline Wilson book in a few years and it was lovely to read one targeted at older readers.

The disgust and judgement piled onto her from relatives and acquaintances made me empathise with anyone who actually had to go through something like this back in the day. My heart ached at how one moment Laura is navigating life, family and friendship as an adoloescent and the next she's whisked off to a home. With rare exceptions such as bank holidays, the book group meets on the first Wednesday of every month at 7.