My Sister Jodie - Tapa dura

Pearl and Jodie are sisters. Pearl is the quiet, cautious, studious younger sister. Jodie is bold and brash and bad - but Pearl adores her anyway. When their parents get new jobs as the cook and caretaker at a fusty old boarding school, the girls have to move there and spend their summer holidays in the school with just a few children and staff for company. And when they arrive, things start to change. Jodie has always been the leader - but now it's Pearl who's making new friends like the amazingly tall, badger-watching Harley and Mrs Wilberforce, the wife of the Head who's confined to a wheelchair after an accident but introduces Pearl to wonderful new books.Jodie just seems to be getting into more and more trouble - arguing with Mum, scaring the little children, flirting with the gardener...When term begins, their strange summer is over. But things keep on changing. Jodie really doesn't fit in with the posh teenagers at the school. But Pearl is doing well in lessons and has even more friends. Maybe she doesn't need Jodie as much as she used to. But Jodie needs her. And when the school celebrations of Firework Night come around and a tragic event occurs, Pearl realises quite how much she does need her big sister...

JACQUELINE WILSON is an extremely well-known and hugely popular author. THE ILLUSTRATED MUM was chosen as British Children's Book of the Year in 1999 and was winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Award 2000. Jacqueline has won the prestigious Smarties Prize and the Children's Book Award for DOUBLE ACT, which was also highly commended for the Carnegie Medal. Jacqueline was awarded an OBE in 2002 and was the Children's Laureate for 2005-2007. * 'A brilliant young 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 emtional issues' BOOKSELLER