"We'll all be Diamond girls together." (The Diamond Girls - Jacqueline Wilson)

Member Name: helican

Product:	The Diamond Girls - Jacqueline Wilson
Date:	12/06/09 (21 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: an involving story & wonderful characters.

Disadvantages: rather relentlessly grim, with a last-minute ending.

Dixie, her mum & three sisters have moved homes a lot on their housing estate & they're finally starting to feel settled. But Mum, with a new baby due, has other plans & moves them to a new house with promises of a dream house & garden. When they arrive, though, the house is a vandalised wreck on a rough estate, & when Mum suddenly goes into labour the girls' troubles escalate. Dixie makes a new friend but she's got big problems of her own, & Mum's in no state to put things right.

As you'd expect of a Jacqueline Wilson story this is a heartwarming tale that deftly weaves together several storylines & a varied cast of lifelike characters.

Dixie is a classic Wilson heroine: young for her age with a beloved cuddly toy & a vivid imagination that helps her escape the grimness of real life.

Her scatterbrained mother is fondly portrayed & her chaotic lifestyle - made worse by her complete trust in her horoscopes & tarot cards - is redeemed by her good nature & love for her very different girls.

There's plenty of the kind of emotionally difficult situations that Wilson handles so sensitively, such as how Dixie feels about her absent father & his other family, & how clingy she gets with his colleague Bruce, who helps them move house & gets more involved than he expected.

In fact there's so many dilemmas & emtional upheavals that I didn't enjoy this book as much as her others. One terrible scenario follows another until it all gets a bit overwhelming & a happy ending seems impossible. Then all of a sudden, in the last very short chapter, Dixie gets hospitalised in unlikely circumstances & everything is resolved in such a rush that I felt a bit cheated.

There's some bad language & difficult subject matter in this that makes it more suitable for children aged about twelve & over, I think, & despite its flaws it still hold lots of appeal for Wilson fans & is well worth a read.

Summary: a warm tale of family & poverty in a new home