Bags of fun - The Suitcase Kid review by B O'Problem

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	• The Suitcase Kid Jacqueline Wilson Transworld Publishers, 2007 - 160 pages average customer review:based on 8 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Bags of fun - The Suitcase Kid review by B O'Problem

Andrea is a ten year old kid on the move. It's a tough decision between Mum with the Baboon or Dad and Carrie. Will she be on the move forever? The answer lies in the story. A delightful one to please the kids.

When the parents split up, where do you fit in?

Andy West's parents have divorced and have started new lives with other partners. Andy is to spend one week with her mother and the "Baboon" and his miserable children. While there, she is forced to share her step-sister Katie's room, and Katie goes out of her way to make Andy miserable. On the weeks Andy stays with her dad and his "new agey" wife Carrie, she shares a room with 5 year old twins Zen and Crystal, and their mess. To add to the misery, Carrie is pregnant. The only one who understands's Andy's confusion is her constant companion Radish, a tiny toy rabbit. Radish understands how Andy misses the tiny cottage she and her parents shared. Radish understands how hard it is to make people you barely know, your family. Radish understands how hard it is to remember all your schoolwork and belongings when you stay at two places. All Andy wants is a place for her and Radish to feel at home. One day she and Radish discover a tiny, hidden garden, that they long to make their own. This is a sensitive story of divorce and one child trying to cope with events out of her control. Once again, Jacqueline Wilson has displayed an uncanny understanding of the needs of a child, and a true ear for dialog. This is a sweet book and a must read for anyone you know who has been touched by divorce.

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A student review

Jacqueline Wilson, the writer of THE SUITCASE KID (1992), has won many awards by having her own style, in which she typically writes about modern British kids facing daily problems. The novel comments on the common problem of divorce and portray a kid called Andrea, revealing her situation when her parents divorced. Her Mum remarried into a family with three chilodren. The novel discusses how Andrea divides her time between two homes.

The complication continues in the story, as Andrea lives with her Dad for a week, and then lives with her Mum for a week. Since she doesn't a have a stable situation, and feeling that she's not part of either family, she determines to reunite Mum and Dad and go back to her original home, Mulberry Cottage, full of warm memories.

She is right in the middle of the see-saw. However, there is an eternal advocate for Andrea, and it's a Sylvanian Family rabbit called Radish, her pet, and very important in Andrea's life.

Andrea is having hard time in tolerating her step-mother, father, sisters, and brother: she suffers from unfairness. When she faces her parents every week, the cacophony of argument roars throught the house. But, Andrea faces the situation with maturity.

I adored reading this book. The chapters are cleverly divided by letter-based names such as chapter one, "A is for Andy" which is creative and special for little kids but may seem dumb for teenagers. The story starts slowly but builds drama and allows to identify with Andrea.

Andrea no longer gets to see her best friend as much because although Andrea still sees Aileen at school, Aileen no longer lives close and spends more time with Fiona.

I personally loathed the parents of Andrea's Mum's new husband, "Uncle" Bill because they refuse to send presents, saying there is no blood connection.

Also, Mum's new stepdaughter, Katie, is total booger. Katie's execrable treatment of Andrea is unfair, even though Katie's real Mum has died. I hated Katie even though the author made me see that Katie had a reason for her behavior.

I recommend this book.

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STUCK IN THE MIDDLE

Hve you ever been stuck in the middle? 12 year old Andy has suffered the divorce of her parents. Everything was perfect from Andys point of view, she loved living in milbury cottage. Then everything changed now she is thrown around from house to house. Mums 1 week her dads the next. Just as shethinks nothing can get ant worse her step mum falls pregnant. Will Andy beable to maintain the torture of her annoying little step sister will her mum and dad ever stop arguing when they meat find out in this wonderful story .

Tug of War - ABCs of Divorce

Andrea (Andy) at 10 is living out of a suitcase. She alternates her weeks between her divorced parents. Her father has remarried Carrie, a post-Woodstock flower child who has 5-year-old twins Zen and Crystal from a previous marriage. She is pregnant with her third child, a girl. Andrea tries to make sense out of this by going through the ABCs of divorce, with each chapter going down the alphabet.

Andrea's mother has also remarried. Andrea dislikes her widower stepfather and calls him the Baboon. He has bratty Katie, 10 who is thoroughly spoiled; Grant, 12 and Paula, 14 who are pleasant and reasonable. I just hated the way Andrea's mother defended Katie regardless. Katie treated Andrea badly with impunity and that bothered me. Even though one could sympathize with her fear of dying in her sleep, because as Grant explained, Katie was told when their mother died that death "was like going to sleep." Still, that doesn't excuse her execrable treatment of Andrea and her malicious sneakiness. People who glorify Other People's Children to their own and let themselves be conned and beguiled by Other People's Children make me tired. Sneaky Katie lies; destroys Andrea's things and ridicules her for being inordinately attached to her stuffed rabbit, Radish.

I disliked the way Andrea's parents used her as a pawn against each other. When the girl became ill and couldn't leave one home for another, once again her natural parents try to use her against each other. Another thing that bothered me was the way each parent spoke against the other's new spouse. I also disliked the Baboon's parents because they excluded Andrea and made a big point of buying presents for their natural grandchildren.

Andrea's school work suffers; she and her parents see a counselor who talks down to Andrea and is generally irksome. I didn't like the cloying, annoying way she spoke to Andrea. In time, Andrea accepts the fact that she is the link in two extended families; Katie will continue being allowed to get away with murder, but at least she has the twins, Grant, Paula and some kind neighbors who have moved into her former house on her side. The house she pines for is called Mulberry Cottage. That in turn makes me think of the inane song, "here we go 'round the mulberry bush." Plenty of thorny characters in this story.

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reviews: page 1, 2

When Andy West's parents get divorced, the plucky 10-year-old is left without a home to call her own. Both her parents have remarried, and Andy finds herself shuttling back and forth between their houses--one week with Mom and "Bill the Baboon," one week with Dad and Carrie. Living out of a suitcase is tough, but having five new stepbrothers and sisters is even tougher.

Her parents say Andy should be happy to have two wonderful new families. But Andy wants her old family back. She wants to live with her mom and dad in their beloved Mulberry Cottage. Andy knows that's not going to happen, though, because real life isn't a fairy tale.

From the Hardcover edition.

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