Best Friends

Product Information

In the book, Alice sends Gemma a birthday card and her charm bracelet with a new charm on it with a note saying they are best friends forever despite no more contact. In the story, Alice and her family move away to Scotland and both Gemma and Alice are desperate to remain best friends. This wasn't my favourite JW novel, however, I did appreciate the allusion to other books ( Tracy Beaker and Biscuits from Cliffhanger).

But when Gemma arrives she is confronted with a potential threat that is, Fiona, Alice's new friend. Despite their differences, the two girls spend almost every day together, and on their birthdays they always wish to stay friends forever. Gemma gradually starts to rebuild her life without Alice, including establishing her friendship with Biscuits.In the message in Alice's birthday card to Gemma at the end of the book, it is mentioned that the dynamics have changed between Alice and Flora - Alice was having a birthday party and her mum had made her ask Flora, however Alice didn't like her much now (presumably following Gemma's visit). The Illustrated Mum won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award, the 1999 Children’s Book of the Year at the British Book Awards and was also shortlisted for the 1999 Whitbread Children’s Book Award. Eleven-year-old girls Gemma Jackson and Alice Barlow have been best friends from birth, ever since they were born on the same day and in the same hospital. The two are polar opposites; Gemma is a tomboy who likes playing wild and exciting sports, while Alice is girly and loves ballet and the color pink.

In this moving book, Jacqueline Wilson captures the power and intensity of girls’ first friendships with startling precision. When Alice and Gemma's birthday comes up it is very emotional for both Gemma and Alice because its thier first birthday apart. The trouble with being a child is that you aren't really in control of the important things, and everyone likes to think they are in control of the things that matter. Gemma is sure they share everything – until she finds out that Alice has something she’s not sharing: a secret that will change their friendship forever.She is a tomboyish, optimistic, and clumsy 11 year old, who enjoys football, bike riding and spending time with her grandfather. In contrast to Gemma, she is quite the girly girl, who loves dressing up, ballet and the color pink. Billy ' Biscuits' Mcvitie: The girls' schoolfriend, a large, tubby boy who loves food, both eating and cooking. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.

The themes that appear in the story are things that children can really relate to, for example, moving away and making new friends. That brings me to the writing - I normally really like JW's style but this one felt repetitive and exaggerated - perhaps I was just more aware as I listened on audio at 1. Her insightful and emotionally challenging books not only stretch reading ability, but give young readers a glimpse into many kinds of lives. I liked how the author portrays Gemma and Alice; different in personality, lifestyle, interests, almost different in everything, yet they were BEST FRIENDS! When Alice is gone, Gemma and Biscuits become closer as friends and work together for a project on famous TV chef "Fat Larry", as well as Biscuits making Gemma her special birthday cake at her party.this book is about two best friends that if you ever saw them you would think that they were sisters. This could be a good talking point for a class discussion especially if the book is used as a course reader for all the children to enjoy. Gemma is intimidated by Flora's friendship with Alice and approval from Alice's mother (including when Flora lies about Alice saying Gemma's family are "quite poor" regarding how a china doll came to fruition - Gemma's late grandmother left the doll to her, which she later gave Alice). In contrast to Gemma she is quite the girly girl, who loves dressing up, ballet and the colour pink.