A perfect title! (Lizzie Zipmouth - Jacqueline Wilson)

Name: Daisy

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Product:	Lizzie Zipmouth - Jacqueline Wilson
Date:	10/09/01 (453 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great story, touching, funny

Disadvantages: none

To begin with, some background as to why we bought this book. My daughter, Elizabeth, is 7 and an avid book reader. Unfortunately though watching her choose a book to buy is like the proverbial watching of paint drying – it takes forever. Of course this is not necessarily a bad thing but I often try to speed the process up by suggesting various books or pointing her towards something. So it was, a few weeks ago in Waterstones, after some 15 mins of watching her ponder over her choice that I came across Lizzie Zipmouth. She had never read any Jacqueline Wilson books before but I had heard many good reports and of course the title glared out at me as perfect for her! She was also impressed that it had ‘her nickname’ in the title and so the deed was done!

We read it together and I was totally impressed! Lizzie’s mum is moving in with her boyfriend Sam and his 2 boys. Lizzie wants to keep her mum to herself and is totally fed up at having to join a new family. They all make a huge effort to make her feel welcome, doing all the things that us adults would think suitable in these circumstances – ordering her favourite pizza, letting her choose how she wants her new bedroom decorated etc. Of course none of this impresses Lizzie and from the minute they move in she stops talking. This results in her stepbrothers naming her Lizzie Zipmouth.

Things continue with tension mounting on both sides and Lizzie ever more determined not to speak. When she is given an ice-cream “My mouth watered but I didn’t even have one lick. The ice-cream melted and dripped down inside my sleeve.” At this stage I wanted to give her a hug, so touching was Jacqueline Wilson’s story-telling!

However Lizzie meets her match in Sam’s grandmother, a true battle-axe who gives her a run for her money. Of course a happy ending eventually does result and Lizzie realizes that her new stepfamily aren’t that bad after all
.

This is a truly brilliant story, written extremely well and easy for a younger child to read. I would highly recommend it for anyone aged 7-12 but particularly any child going through similar experiences. We are now avid Jacqueline Wilson fans, and I’ll be steering my Lizzie towards her books on our next book-buying jaunt!

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