SuitabookThe Girl Who Wasn’t There
Jacqueline Wilson
- Reading
- Try reading it in short sections, pausing after unsettling moments to check how the reader is feeling. Talk about the sisters’ viewpoints before explaining whether the mystery is resolved; the ending remains unclear.
- Themes
- A family facing change: Luna and Aurora move with their father into a tower that needs repairs, while he is still looking for work. The circumstances are presented as pressures shaping family life, but the summaries do not show whether the book ultimately treats them optimistically, critically or ambiguously.
- Imaginary friendship and uncertainty: Aurora prefers spending time with Tansy, her imaginary friend, and apparently believes Tansy exists. The premise makes Aurora’s relationship with Tansy central to the mystery, without establishing whether it is validated, challenged or explained.
- Mystery, fear and the tower: The tower has a room at the top that the children may not enter, and the story asks whether a curse affects the building. The setting is clearly designed to generate suspense, but it is not clear whether the supernatural possibility is confirmed or how fear is finally handled.
- Worth knowing
- Consider whether the reader is comfortable with ghost-story suspense, an apparently haunted or cursed setting, a younger child’s imaginary friend, school difficulties and the family pressure of a parent without work.