Double Act by Jacqueline Wilson

Yesterday’s read was Double Act; also by Jacqueline Wilson. It was about a set of 10 year old twins who do everything together, think alike, creep people out by saying the same thing at the same time, and can’t imagine life apart.


Their names are Ruby and Garnet. Their dad buys a bookshop in a small town and his girlfriend, Rose, moves with them. The twins, of course, hate Rose as she has taken their dad’s attention and they miss their mother (who died).

Ultimately, Garnet is offered a full ride scholarship at a prestigious boarding school while Ruby is not and Garnet decides to take the opportunity. Ruby stops talking to Garnet and the twins endure a summer of silence.

At the end everyone makes up, they decide that Rose is okay, and life goes one.

This book, like The Story of Tracy Beaker, is told through journals written by the girls. I enjoyed it more than Tracy Beaker—mostly because Garnet’s character was likeable. Ruby was much like Tracy Beaker—loud, obnoxious, mean—basically a bully. This was a cute story. Nothing more, nothing less.

If this were a movie, I'd rate it: PG

Overall Grade: C.

Would I recommend this book to my friends: Yeah, I’d recommend it to parents of girls age 8-10.

The Story of Tracy Beaker by Jacqueline Wilson

Uuuuggggghhhh. Yes, I confess, I went into this book with a bad attitude. It all started when I read the back cover which states “Tracy’s been in foster care as long as she can remember. Maybe one day her mother will show up and together they’ll have fabulous adventures. Then again, maybe she won’t. In the meantime, Tracy’s doing everything she can to take care of herself. And that’s hard work, because the girls she lives with are mean and rude and horrible.”


I just…well, Tracy was really annoying and bratty and that wore on me. Fortunately it only had to wear on me for approximately 2 hours and then the book was over.

From what I can tell, Tracy Beaker became a big hit in Britain in the early 90’s. She’s kind of like Punky Brewster…only not as cute and without the cool socks.

The story is 10 year old Tracy Beaker’s journal written in first person narrative while she is living in a foster home. I’m sure kids are all over this stuff, but I just didn’t get it. Maybe I’m getting old.

If this were a movie, I'd rate it: PG

Overall Grade: Meh.

Would I recommend this book to my friends: No. Not even my friends' kids. Sorry.

Bleak House by Charles Dickens

I have one bit of advice for anyone planning to read Bleak House. If your copy does not contain a character list, create your own as you read. I personally got about a third of the way through and realized I was getting characters confused, at which point I promptly logged on to Cliff’s Notes and downloaded a character list which much to my chagrin contained three spoilers. Way to go.

I’ve read several reviews stating that Bleak House is a slow read. I don’t necessarily agree with this statement, so don’t let such reviews frighten you off. It isn’t a riveting read, but isn’t too tedious—much more exciting than the middle section of War and Peace.

The following are (in my most humble opinion) the most major characters in the book, I would name the other major and minor characters but you would be bored to tears by the time I was through as there were so many.

The story begins with Sir Leicester Dedlock, and his beautiful and much younger wife. She has a secret that she has never divulged to anyone, not ever her husband. It is so secret, in fact, that even she does not know it in its entirety. We are then introduced to Esther Summerson, Ada Clare, and Richard Carstone who are wards of Mr. Jarndyce—a generous, kind fatherly character who is involved in a never ending, complicated and expensive lawsuit. The wards move into Mr. Jarndyce’s estate—Bleak House. The house is anything but bleak and is a place of solace for the three wards.
The story in all of its intricacies plays in out and through the aforementioned characters as they experience life. Their experiences include travels, love, heartbreak, obsession, sickness, murder, spontaneous combustion, death, trickery (or trickeration if I was an ESPN commentator), education, revenge forgiveness, and much more.

Favorite Quotes:
"Sir Leicester is generally in a complacent state, and rarely bored. When he has nothing else to do, he can always conetmplate his own greatness. It is a considerable advantage to a man, to have so inexhaustible a subject." (pg 167)
"He didn't at all see why the busy Bee should be proposed as a model to him; he supposed the Bee liked to make honey, or he wouldn't do it--nobody asked him." (pg 106)

If this were a movie, I'd rate it: PG-13

Overall Grade: A-
Would I recommend this book to my friends: Yes.