Love Frankie

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And Wilson's instinctive understanding of the emotional intensity of teenage female friendships, and how, here, that bleeds confusingly into romantic attraction, is spot on. I liked that both Frankie and her sister Zara were in a similar situations with their infatuations on rather self-involved people who treat others pretty poorly.

Love Frankie - Wikipedia Love Frankie - Wikipedia

Reading her thoughts and conversations was a little off-putting because of this, because who wants to read about a ten-year-old thinking about sex? Frankie's having a tough time at school and then her sworn enemy becomes her friend, and then she feels like she wants her to be more than that - being fourteen is tough, and Frankie deals with all of her feelings really well. Popular, pretty Sally Macclesfield has been thirteen-year-old Frankie’s nemesis for a while, but when they finally start becoming friends, Frankie realises her feelings for Sally go beyond friendship. Frankie is the middle girl in a trio of sisters, trying to look after her Mum after she fell ill, their Dad left them and now her best friend wants to be her boyfriend.I mean, after all, having a mother with a serious physical illness and a dad who is dating another woman isn't exactly a piece of cake, and her sisters are going through the same thing.

Love Frankie by Jacqueline Wilson | Goodreads Love Frankie by Jacqueline Wilson | Goodreads

descriptions were uninspiring; however I think these things do connect to a shared experience of girls who are coming out and unearthing their identity, thus the phrase "baby dyke". Nick Sharratt has written and illustrated many books for children including Shark in the Park, You Choose and Pants.

I was excited because I myself identify as gay and this book would have meant the moon and stars to me had I had read it 15 years ago. Nick Sharratt has created illustrations for over two hundred and fifty books during his illustrious career. Most obviously, it's very long, and it doesn't really justify its length; there's a great deal of repetition. The teenaged characters all sound a bit old-fashioned and she leans into stereotypes a bit too much (the dig about ME vs MS wasn't appreciated either - they're both neurological conditions actually). If I hadn't read JW before, I'd be unlikely to make this judgement thinking it just applied to this particular protagonist.

Love Frankie by Jacqueline Wilson, Nick Sharratt | Waterstones Love Frankie by Jacqueline Wilson, Nick Sharratt | Waterstones

In a way, I like that there wasn't too much going on to detract from the story of Frankie's first love, but there were definitely some seeds of expectation sewn that possible didn't need to be. This difficulty in raising children (due to a multitude of reasons) and single motherhood are each commonly recurring theme in many of JW’s books. I picked up this book as it was the first JW book to have a LGBTQ+ storyline since she herself came out as gay, which is a trait that I myself share. Also being a disabled mum I can personally garuntee that most kids would not be that selfish towards their own mum knowing they had a permanent disability. As a teenager she started work for a magazine publishing company and then went on to work as a journalist on Jackie magazine (which she was told was named after her!

Until one day the two girls become best friends and they do everything together but Frankie is in love with Sally and Sally loves her back and they force to keep this a secret from their parents and from school. The one Asian character was a complete stereotype and only appeared occasionally being used as a prop for bigging up the protagonists mood.

Love Frankie | BookTrust Love Frankie | BookTrust

I sincerely hope that the cliffhanger ending means that there might be another novel about Frankie in the future. There was a refreshing lack of angst over realising she might be gay - things really have changed for today’s young people, certainly not entirely but at least to a significant extent. I was so truly hoping this would be the next inspirational book to our youth going through sexual orientation questions and yet I think this would be one of the worst books for them to read. When one of Frankie’s bullies starts to strike up an actual friendship with her, Frankie is unsure what to think. The characters are honest and realistic, making it the perfect story to perhaps help you navigate the tricky parts of those teenage years.

The story is a bit simplistic in places and I didn’t love the ending but I think it deals with first, gay love sensitively and would make an excellent addition to a school library. This deals with important issues like being a carer as a child, trying to deal with your sexuality as a teenager and of course trying to survive school life as a teenager.