Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1326 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-13
• Released on: 2008-03-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 247 pages

Synopsis
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...

Customer Reviews

bad attitude
bad book don't read it bought it for my daughter told me their was swearing, abusive parents,parents getting divorce, 16 year olds getting pregnant very depressing, mums covered with tattoo i band my child from atching tacy beaker in double act 10 year olds going to birmingham without permission, kids bunking of school running away and stealing dont read them ther'e very bad

Fantastic, 5 star!!! Buy this Book!
My Sister Jodie is a fantastic book. It is a book that once you pick up you can't put down. I love it! I would recommend it to people who like sudden surprises in books; or just love reading and Jacqueline Wilson. It has an unusual ending that is sudden. I'd probably recommend it for readers aged 10 and up. Defnitley buy this book. It's really interesting!

Surprisingly Dark
I am absolutely convinced that our Jackie's books are becoming steadily more dreary. From the miserable fallout caused by a forbidden (and worryingly twisted) relationship in Love Lessons, to the class-wars waged by the Hannah Montana/Bratz generation in Candyfloss, to the bittersweet ambiguity of Kiss, Wilson's books are revealing an increasingly tense childhood landscape. Children are no longer living in fear of the 'traditional' problems Wilson has written about so provocatively in the likes of Tracy Beaker and the Suitcase kid - now they are exposed to whole host of more 'modern' problems such as the rich/poor divide, our image conscious culture and the constant pressure to conform. And this is shown, very dramatically, in this latest tome.
My Sister Jodie is a break from the norm, even by Wilson's later standards. Set in the isolated and gothic splendour of Melchester Manor, a boarding school, it is a far cry from the surburbia we have got used to in Wilson's books. The setting alone makes the book disconcerting, so it is a relief to discover the plot device of weedy protagonist/peppy role model that we've been exposed to before. This time around our weed is Pearl, a sweet-tempered over-achiever set to blossom in her new surroundings. Our peppy role model is, of course, sister Jodie of the title - a girl whose ginger/bleached ponytail, multiply-pierced ears and penchant for bunking and boozing speak of perhaps the first 'chav' Wilson has ever properly included in her books. As you may have guessed, tough-talking 'chavs' don't go down too well at the well-heeled college and while meek Pearl finds herself popular with her peers, Jodie is repeatedly sneered at by the middle-class boarders. This is all an attack on current culture by Wilson who openly shows her concern for children constantly pressured to look, act, and speak a certain way, and how much money and wordly possession are 'worth'. And in typical Wilson style, she reveals that if this trend continues, only tragedy will follow....
Despite its noble message, I couldn't help thinking that MSJ was a fairly sedentary outing. Candyfloss dealt with the middle class/working class divide in a much more humorous way, Midnight provided a more interesting example of a doomed sibling relationship and one does not need to venture any further than the fabulous 'Girls...' series to be confronted with thought-provoking material concerning image. My Sister Jodie becomes swallowed by its own dark setting, and has a portentious quality throughout that I found surprising considering Wilson's usual light touch. Jodie's insistance on a black 'funeral parlour' style room, her joking to her mum to 'mourn her little corpse daughter', the death of one of a pair of badger cubs and the locked gates and perpertually cold tower room all reek of a foreboding and morbidity that Wilson's comparitively cheery tomes usually steer well clear of. All the imagery is alarmingly heavy handed as well, though not all children or young people would be aware of this. Aside from this, MSJ is very pedestrian - not an awful lot happens. Jodie complains, Jodie runs off, Pearl is sad, Pearl is happy...the whole book seems to mark time up until the penultimate chapter when the tragedy occurs. It's almost as if Wilson just wanted to write another book about an untimely death, realised she could never best the wonderous black humour, pathos and despair of Vicky Angel and gave up, rather focussing on a horrible end rather than an engaging story line. That said, it is not an awful book, but as one fellow reviewer puts it 'it is not unputdownable'. Very true. This lacks the heart of Wilson's other books and it suffers for it. Re-read Vicky Angel if you want a book about death, re-read Girls in Love if you want a book about image, and re-read Candyfloss if you want to read about the rich/poor divide. Nuff said.