These links show the original reading lists. Inclusion is not a guarantee of suitability for your child.
Jacqueline Wilson - Author
This is a grief story with a supernatural or possibly imagined presence at its centre. Jade’s friendship with Vicky is loving but unequal, and recovery involves recognising control, facing guilt and accepting help.
Jade struggles after Vicky’s death, encounters her continuing presence and eventually works with a grief counsellor.Exploratory / explanatoryExploratory / explanatory: the book explains or explores the subject without an established evaluative position.Exploratory / explanatory: the book explains or explores the subject without an established evaluative position.
How the book presents it: The story presents grief as disruptive and complicated, while showing support and greater self-direction as part of Jade’s recovery.
Talk about: How does Jade’s understanding of responsibility change as she receives help?
Friendship and control
Vicky and Jade are extremely close, but Vicky’s influence includes demands, cruelty and pressure to remain loyal.MixedMixed: the book presents both supportive and critical signals.Mixed: the book presents both supportive and critical signals.
How the book presents it: Closeness is portrayed as emotionally powerful but not wholly healthy; Jade’s growing independence is treated as necessary for moving forward.
Talk about: When does loyalty become pressure, and can Jade care about Vicky without obeying her?
Reality, imagination and the supernatural
Vicky appears and speaks to Jade, while the story leaves open whether this is a real spirit or part of Jade’s experience of grief.AmbiguousAmbiguous: the book leaves its position open to more than one reasonable reading.Ambiguous: the book leaves its position open to more than one reasonable reading.
How the book presents it: The uncertainty invites discussion rather than supplying one definite explanation for what Jade experiences.
Talk about: What evidence might lead you to read Vicky as a spirit, an imagined presence or both?
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Why It May Be Worth Reading
The book may open useful conversations about how bereavement can affect behaviour, how a friendship can include pressure as well as closeness, and why seeking support can matter when feelings become overwhelming.
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What Deserves Attention
Expect a direct encounter with death, intense grief, guilt and a distressing, controlling portrayal of Vicky’s influence. The ending includes emotional danger around Jade’s unresolved feelings and her movement towards recovery.
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A Conversation Worth Having
If Jade’s experiences are understood as grief, imagination or something supernatural, what changes in how you view her responsibility, her friendship with Vicky and the help she receives?
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Reading Approach
Consider reading alongside the child rather than treating the book as a straightforward comfort story. Pause after Vicky’s death and during the counselling scenes, and invite reactions without insisting on one interpretation.
Confidence & Basis
Theme indicators describe how the book presents a topic; they are not a verdict on the whole book or your family's values. Confidence reflects how much book-specific material was checked. Only part of the book information was available, so some details remain unconfirmed.
What remains unconfirmed
Grief and recovery: Some details of this treatment remain unclear.
Friendship and control: Some details of this treatment remain unclear.
Reality, imagination and the supernatural: Some details of this treatment remain unclear.
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