Hetty Feather

Hetty Feather
Jacqueline Wilson
London, Random House, 2009, 335p

I had always thought my sister was (and is) possibly the biggest fan of Jacqueline Wilson alive. When we were little, she got ill, and was sick on one of her books - I think it was The Suitcase Kid - and she has never since fully recovered. It is for her that I chose to read Hetty Feather.

I haven't read anything by Wilson in a long time. I outgrew her books pretty fast, but I find it a challenge to help our young school girls outgrow her, too. And although the girls at my school insist she is still their heroine, I struggle to understand why. 

I didn't particularly like Hetty as a character, as I found her to be too self-centred, but I can understand why teenage girls do. For a teenage girl, Hetty is wonderful, as she is strong, self-willed, and gets into all sorts of adventures. She stands up for her friends, just like every girls should. She defies authority, which every girls wants to have the guts to do. And she gets to live out her own fairy tale. Who doesn't want that?

I do enjoy Jacqueline Wilson's writing - she is detailed and uses challenging words, so hopefully most readers learn as they read. 

But I found the plot to be quite similar to many of her other books - as usual, it contains an orphan who wants to find her mother, and is also an aspiring author. 

Nevertheless, Wilson is incredible at her cliffhangers, and since this is part of a trilogy, I am incredibly inclined towards reading more...