SuitabookThe Diamond Girls
Jacqueline Wilson
- Reading
- Use Dixie’s narration as a discussion starting point: ask what she notices, what remains hidden, and whether different characters receive understanding or support.
- Themes
- Family loyalty and difference: Four sisters with different fathers live together, while their mother insists that moving will benefit the family despite their objections. The family’s ability to live together and stick together is presented positively, while their differences create conflict and movement.
- Appearances and hidden difficulties: The story contrasts a chaotic family with a more ordered one, while a six-year-old girl from the apparently conventional family is being mistreated. The book leaves its stance open to more than one reading.
- Change, grief and difficult relationships: The family’s history includes an abusive partner, a death from drug overdose, grief and changing romantic relationships. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Worth knowing
- Consider whether the treatment of domestic abuse, drug-related death, grief, fighting, pregnancy and child mistreatment suits the reader, particularly given the uncertainty about their detail and emotional intensity.