Clean Break - Softcover

Wilson, Jacqueline

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0440868505 ISBN 13: 9780440868507

Publisher: Yearling, 2008

Em adores her funny, glamorous dad - who cares if he's not her real father? He's wonderful to her, and to her little brother Maxie and sister Vita. True to form at Christmas, Dad gives them fantastic presents, including a real emerald ring for his little Princess Em.

Unfortunately he's got another surprise in store - he's leaving them. Will Dad's well-meaning but chaotic attempts to keep seeing Em and the other children help the family come to terms with this new crisis? Or would they be better off with a clean break - just like Em's arm?

Review:

At just over 300 pages, Jacqueline Wilson’s new novel Clean Break may be her longest yet, but her ever-increasing legions of fans will never complain. The more words from their favourite author they can get crammed into one book, the better. The country’s most-borrowed author is again on familiar ground, with a cast of colourful and needy characters that could live just around the corner. Her ability to reflect modern life, and how ordinary people live it and struggle with it, is unparalleled in contemporary children’s fiction.

Clean Break is told from the point of view of Em, or Emerald as she likes to be known, and is about what happens to her mum, gran, and two half-siblings, Maxie and Vita, when the man of the house leaves them for another woman. Her mum’s second husband, Frankie, is not her real dad, but he has been Em’s dad ever since she can remember and she does not want to let him abandon them all. It’s an understandably traumatic departure.

Frankie leaves on Boxing Day morning and Em’s mum, Julie, is devastated. They all cling on to the hope that he will soon return to them, but it quickly transpires that he’s not coming back and that they’re all just going to have to deal with their new circumstances in whatever way they can. Gran just goes on criticising her daughter, which doesn’t help, but Em, Maxie and Vita find solace and comfort in their friends and heroes, real and imaginary.

Despite the story’s sad themes, Wilson always leaves the reader and her characters with the shoots of new, better beginnings and hope for the future. Like any book, its worth is in the quality of its storytelling, and fortunately this particular author is great at doing just that.

(Age 9 and over) --John McLay

Review:

"A brilliant writer of wit and subtlety" (The Times)

"Hugely popular with seven to ten year olds: she should be prescribed for all cases of reading reluctance" (Independent on Sunday)

"Has a rare gift for writing lightly and amusingly about emotional issues" (The Bookseller)

"Jacqueline Wilson tackles another delicate subject that is close to many children's hearts" (The Bookseller)

"Clean Break sometimes causes sniffles, but in places it's also humorous and is a wonderful read for children aged eight and upwards. Jacqueline Wilson has written plenty of books . . . This is her best one yet" (Birmingham Evening Mail)

• Publisher: Yearling
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0440868505
• ISBN 13: 9780440868507
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320
• Illustrator: Sharratt Nick