Midnight

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I kind of wish there was a mention, like a suggestion, of whether Mum was taking any kind of medication, any antidepressants, however. What about therapy? Asking for help when dealing with mental health problems big enough that you had to be institutionalised and separated from your children for a while is a good thing to represent in children's lit! Was it a good thing for Mum to deal with her depression mostly on her own? I'm not sure. It depends on the context. What I am certain and adamant about is that Mab shouldn't have to act like an adult and take care of her out of anxiety. They work for a while and then start up 'Truth or Dare' again, where Will asks Violet who she likes better, him or Jasmine. When Violet fails to respond, Will dares her to spend ten minutes in the attic. Violet reluctantly agrees. In the attic, Violet finds out that she used to have another brother named Will, but he died shortly after he was born, so her parents tried to replace him with her Will. Violet is ecstatic and can't wait to tell her brother. When Violet comes down after her ten minutes, she finds Will and Jasmine kissing. They make fun of her and the fairies she has hanging from the ceiling in her room. Violet feels betrayed because she thinks Will is trying to hurt her and Jasmine was only friends with her so she could be with Will. After smashing up her fairies (scratching Will with her Crow Fairy in the process), Violet runs away to see Casper Dream's old house, to find some magic in her sad world. There she finds Casper Dream himself and they become good friends.

Jasmine me ha caído muy bien al principio, pero a mi gusto la ha cagado de forma monumental en pocas horas, así que mentalmente haré ver que todo eso no ha pasado y simplemente recordaré y dibujaré las escenas preciosas que ha vivido con Vio. I enjoyed Frankie's travels through her own sexual awakening. With a 13-year-old protagonist, this is suitable for readers younger than she, kissing and discussing feelings the extent of the action. The narrator on the Audible version captures her young voice very well, and Wilson brings the story to life with a lot of speech and thought, and a familiar world readers will be able to visualise. The author Wilson is an intriguing character himself, coming into writing relatively late after a lengthy career in teaching following a youthful dose of Vietnam. His own autobiography would, I suspect, be a fascinating read, but his age, experience and viewpoint can be detected throughout this book without ever overwhelming it and giving it just the right degree of a philosophical, almost elegiac, undertone. The protagonist of Midnight is Violet a naive 13 year old. The book was published in 2003 and that’s got something to do with it, I think. It was the time when cellphones weren’t ubiquitous yet and people still wrote letters to authors instead of stalking them or talking about/to them online. Violet adores reclusive author Casper Dream, the author of the beautifully illustrated fairy books. She loves the fictitious universe created by him. She draws inspiration from it and sews fairy dolls. As you can see she isn’t your boisterous teen but quiet and artistic. Midnight offers interesting insights into the mind of a writer and on creating imaginary worlds which appealed to me greatly.Al padre le odio por cosas parecidas, de Will puedo esperarme la mierda porque tiene 15 años y esta en una edad en que todo es asqueroso, pero ese padre se merece una colleja con una mesa, y lo digo más por su comportamiento con su esposa que por otra cosa. Wilson describes himself as someone who was raised as a Catholic but is in remission. I was surprised at his very naive portrayal of the two nuns in the book. I've never met nuns quite so unworldly as these two. Wilson did really well on this. Reading it again though, I don’t feel like I connected as much as I used to. I still love Violet, I still remember connecting to her so much, she made me feel so much better about being such a book lover – reading books was my escape from the world, and connecting to Violet made that so much more enjoyable. I just feel like she could have done more. There were a few loose ends not wrapped up, which are gonna bug me for a little while. I feel a second instalment in the Midnight bookverse would help a lot with that. As well as winning many awards for her books, including the Children's Book of the Year, Jacqueline is a former Children's Laureate, and in 2008 she was appointed a Dame.

Within the family unit (divorce, Dad with new partner, Mum with MS) we zoom in on Frankie. A young teen, she's coping with her parents' new lives and her Mum's diagnosis, then struggling as bullies descend on her at school.

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That is the case today as I review her book, Midnight, a story about emotional abuse, a teenage girl’s obsessions with fairies and running away from home. Small challenge You’ve got the number of the hotel just in case?’ said Mum. ‘It’s by the phone. Of course, in a real emergency you’d better call the police.’ The ending felt a little rushed. Some character arcs where never resolved and some plot points felt a little shoved in with a "it's magic!" but overall the plot flowed well enough for a kids book. This is my second reading of The Midnight Swimmer and have increased my rating from a 4 to a 5 star.

She’d been his pet chinchilla. He’d had her for five years and loved her more than anyone. He’d never cuddle any of us, not even Mum or me, but he’d sit for hours with Muffy curled on his lap. Will rarely confined her to her cage. She had a habit of burrowing beneath a cushion or under the bed so you could never fling yourself down anywhere in case you squashed her. Will insisted she was fully house-trained but Muffy still had many accidents. I tried not to make a fuss when I sat on her small hard droppings. I don’t mind multiplot storylines as long as the main plot gets resolved and to me, the most important one here would be the relationship and emotional abuse between Will and his sister. I decided to read this book because of it's title, Midnight,(It all seemed rather exciting and mysterious), the author, Jacqueline Wilson and its fantastic blurb. Me gusta la obsesión que tiene Vio con las hadas y con Casper. Es una de las cosas que me ha hecho identificarme con ella y me gusta ver como los fragmentos de los libros y las ilustraciones tienen esas coincidencias (que dan bastante mal rollo) con su realidad.

It’s very… well, not Wilson. I think the problem in this book is the character’s motivation for her plot. Wilson’s characters are normally full of life but Violet is flat, and quite honestly, I don’t like her. She’s too simple. I need to know more about Will, I need to know his thoughts, what he thinks on everything we discover at the end, I need more on him, the poor baby. I need to hug him.

I think Mr Wilson's writing is excellent and evokes the period brilliantly, but I think his greatest skill is in the gaps he leaves, into which you are forced to put your interpretations. Seriously, bad characterization and plot development here. The dialogue was embarrassing to read. The vampires have to explain in terrible, cheesy, monologues how truly evil they really are (!). The main character seems like a hopeless self-insertion. He is the manliest man who ever was, and has no flaws. The other characters have to keep repeating how great and admirable he is, because otherwise the reader wouldn't get it. Will - Violet’s 15-year-old brother, almost 16, who found out he was adopted last Christmas and has become highly sardonic and antisocial towards his family, especially his father. He has an unpredictable behaviour, some moments he’s incredibly patient while other times he won’t even bother holding a conversation, but it’s consistent throughout the book that he enjoys torturing and manipulating Violet into his twisted games - admitting that ‘they’re all for [his] delight.’ He is said to be quite handsome as half the girls and some of the boys in school like Will, though he doesn’t care much for them. He is good at maths, history and French - and can sew to some extent, as he repaired Violet’s fairies at the end of the book. There should be some consequence for Will at least. Especially as it is a children’s book and children don’t know the difference between right and wrong as much as adults do. If there was a consequence, children would know what Will did was wrong and they should not behave like that. Characters The characterizations here are great, though a tad clichéd, and the different perspectives give each personality greater meaning. You'll root for the ragtag rebellion, and laugh and cry along with them as they struggle to regain humanity's hold on the world.As I am sure you are aware, Wilson is a children’s writer who doesn’t shy away from telling stories about the suffering of children. These books are usually character-led stories that lend themselves to the plot. Katy, Hetty Feather and Lily Aloneare just a few of many examples.However, Midnight is different for this reason. Will wasn’t even at school yet but he made up plays that lasted for hours. No, not hours – and they can’t have been real plays. He just made Big and Little Growl dance about in front of me, one of them booming in a glorious great growl, one of them squeaking in a winsome weeny growl. I know that’s all it can have been, and yet the carpet around me sprouted forests and Big Growl and Little Growl padded about me on real paws. I reached out and patted their furry bodies and smelled the honey on their breath. For this reason, I think this book falls under the same responsibility as My Sister Jodiein terms of responsibility for young children. Yes, things seemed to be looking up at the end, but I don’t feel it was solid enough. I think Will needed a lesson that could make it a more solid impression that he would behave better in the future. It’s not a bad read but I don’t think it is one of her best books. I just feel nothing significant happened or changed except Violet got to meet her favourite author and discover that she had a talentwith ragdoll making. I mean did anything really change at the end?