The Illustrated Mum

Far from being depressing or overwhelming, The Illustrated Mum features another of Wilson's classic heroines. Dol deals with the extraordinary circumstances of her life with a mixture of humour and quiet intelligence that blossoms as the situation reaches its inevitable climax. The story is suitable for ages nine and above and the running time is six hours and 25 minutes. --Susan Harrison

Reader Reviews:

Brill Book (7/7 people found this helpful)

About the author of the book

Jacqueline Wilson is one of my favourite authors and she wrote this great book! She has her own personal collection of over 15,000 books and I don't even have about a thirtieth of that (500 books)!

About the awards for the book

This brilliant book was shortlisted for:
The Whitbread Award
The Sheffield Children's Book Award
`The Illustrated Mum' was the winner of the:
Children's Book of the Year, British Book Awards 2000
Guardian Children's Fiction Award, 2000
It was voted for `The Book I Couldn't Put Down' in the Blue Peter book awards
The book was Highly Commended for the Carnegie Medal

The story plot of the book
Marigold is the mother of two children Dolphin and Star. Dolphin, the younger one, loves her amazing tattoos, which are all over her body from head to foot and thinks she is the most beautiful mother in the world. Star, the daughter of her husband that she loved the best, does not. Find out what happens when Star leaves to live with her dad and Marigold goes crazy...

My awards for the book

I would rate this brilliant book 10/ 10; I really, really, really, really, really, really enjoyed this book, to prove that I really, really, really, really, really, really, really enjoyed this book, I couldn't put it down until the very end! I would recommend it to anyone who really likes Jacqueline Wilson's books - just like me, especially girls.

INSPIRATIONAL STORYTELLING (2/2 people found this helpful)

This book was recommended to me by my older sister and at first I wasn't sure I would like it, being the cynical 25 year old I am. But this book is really absorbing. The way Wilson draws the reader into the mind of a child and deals with complex issues without over sentimentalising is fantastic. Soon I had forgotten all about my preconceptions and began caring greatly about what was happening to the characters instead. Truly an inspirational book and I enjoyed my time in the world created by Wilson immensely.

An all round disappointing read (4/14 people found this helpful)

This book takes the monotonous format of every other Jaqueline Wilson novel, a struggling single parent and her disfunctional children battle through an ocean of emotions that are depicted in an unrealistic one dimensional manner. The story could potentially be a stimulating one, it tells of dolphin and star the daughters of an excessively tattooed mother and their struggle to survive as a family. The novel tries too desperately to convey different circumstances but the portrayal is so repetitive it becomes tedious and quite frankly boring. What would be really impressive is if Jaqueline Wilson could write a book which included happy people and not such a predictable storyline- now that would be different, and worth a read. The illustrated mum however is just another attempt to break away from stereotypical ideals but because of this intent it automatically becomes pretentious. In case you hadn't gathered I would not recommend this book unless you enjoy Jaqueline Wilsons other books as then you are in for a good read.

The Illustrated Mum (4/4 people found this helpful)

The book I am reviewing is called The Illustrated Mum which was written by Jacqueline Wilson and was published by Corgi Books.
The Illustrated Mum tells the story of a mum called Marigold who is covered in tattoos and has two daughters called Dolphin and Star. The mum, Marigold is always out late partying leaving the girls to look after themselves in the flat alone. In one instant Marigold goes out on one of her nights and bumps into Star's dad, Micky. He comes back to meet his daughter who he never knew existed and gets to know her. However, as he already has a girlfriend there was no way he was ever going to move back in and get back with Marigold who was still in love with him. The story follows the relationship between members of the family through both good and bad times.
I think that this book is a brilliant read for girls over the age of 10. I really enjoyed reading it, as it was very exciting, not too long so that I stayed interested and it was also fun reading about a parent who was weird and something different from normal everyday parents.

The good and bad about "The Illustrated Mum" (3/19 people found this helpful)

This book was quite an easy read despite not being very well written. The book droned on a lot and was full of unnecessary padding in areas. The book was slow starting and had vertually no plot.

The feeble mother named Marigold was an insane woman tattoed from head to toe. She had two daughters, one who despised her and the other who loved her. The story is about the girls trying to find there dads. Taking there seperate paths, to find their dads comes to the end of the book, a pointless adventure.

Jacqueline Wilson

Editorial Review: