The Illustrated Mum
By: Jacqueline Wilson
Readers rate it 3.8 (17 on Hardcover)
224 pages · Released 1999 · First published by Transworld
Content report card
The Illustrated Mum parent’s guide: what’s inside
LGBTQ+ themes
What it offers
A note for parents
This is a well-regarded children's novel that honestly portrays mental illness and family dysfunction without being gratuitous. The story centers on two sisters navigating life with a bipolar mother, exploring themes of responsibility, love, and resilience. While it deals with mature emotional content and includes some difficult family situations, it is age-appropriate for mature middle-grade readers and is widely taught in schools. The book's strength lies in its empathy and positive messages about sibling bonds and coping with hardship.
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From the publisher
A powerful novel of two sisters who have to cope with living in a very dysfunctional household where their tattoo-crazy mum has real difficulties in coping. A new edition with new cover look and introduction.Dolphin adores her mother: she's got wonderful clothes, bright hair and vivid tattoos all over her body. She def... A powerful novel of two sisters who have to cope with living in a very dysfunctional household where their tattoo-crazy mum has real difficulties in coping. A new edition with new cover look and introduction.Dolphin adores her mother: she's got wonderful clothes, bright hair and vivid tattoos all over her body. She definitely lives a colourful life. Dolphin's older sister, Star, also loves her but is beginning to wonder if staying with a mum whose temper can be as flashy as her body-art is the best thing for the girls...
Shelved under
- Juvenile fiction
- Family
- Mothers
- Tattooing
- Tattooing in fiction
- Literature
- Single-parent families in fiction
- Single-parent families
- Sisters in fiction
- Fiction
- England in fiction
- Mothers and daughters in fiction
Books in the Illustrated Mum series
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ISBN 9780440863687 · First published by Transworld