posted on 20 Nov 2016

Clover Moon by Jacqueline Wilson

I have read quite a lot of Jacqueline Wilson’s books over the years and must say that I always come away feeling encouraged with her portrayal of upbeat and plucky girl protagonists. It seems that no matter what horrors life throws at them, each one is characterised by a wry determination to survive and eventually rise above their many difficulties. In this sense they conform perfectly to the traditions of children's literature. The author has always been forthcoming about her own background as a child who had a vivid imagination and a great love of reading and these positive characteristics are usually made a lot of through her heroines. It is strange to reflect that her books were at one time viewed by some as rather risky attempts at a social realism that was too unpleasant for young readers. On the contrary, I would suggest that her stories are very easy to digest and always have a reassuring hopeful ending despite covering some gritty content. This latest one shows us that eleven year old Clover is able to escape the most terrible physical and emotional abuse, the dire effects of poverty and the misery of grief through her imaginative games and her ability to make up distracting stories, and to help other children to do the same.

Wilson is a prolific author with a huge fan base that always ensures a devoted following when she appears in public. She also has a busy website and lots of associated products to keep their interest from flagging. But apart from all this impressive celebrity stuff she is also extremely good at spinning a good yarn and keeping up the tension. This story is one of her books in the history series which aims to educate her readers about specific historical events in an interesting way. This time it is set in the late nineteenth century slums of London where many poor families struggle through every day against grime, disease, violence and death. Clover is the eldest of two sisters whose mother died in childbirth and the half- sister to another four siblings who have arrived as a result of her father’s second marriage to the wicked stepmother, Mildred.

Clover is typical of Wilson’s feisty heroines, one who is never frightened to speak her mind and to stand up to what she perceives as unjust treatment from adults. She is very competent at looking after her younger brothers and sisters and acts as kind of play leader for all the other children in the street, which sometimes gets her into trouble as she encourages them to play some wild imaginative games. She comes across as a caring girl who is also compassionate towards a physically crippled boy, Jimmy Wheels and Daft Mo who ‘isn’t right in the head’. In this sense the story conforms to those in the weekly comics that I, and Wilson herself used to devour when we were children in the early 1960s. These contained strong moral stories about the triumph of kindness, a theme which must still have an appeal because she is such a popular author. Clover also befriends an elderly hunchbacked doll-maker who suffers plenty of name calling from adults and children and is viewed with great suspicion by her stepmother and father. I wonder if this is a rather clumsy ‘don’t trust strange men’ message that she feels the need to include for a modern audience? Clover spends a lot of time hiding from her stepmother in his shop and longs to be his apprentice. With another baby on the way, the demands on her time only threaten get worse, as does her mother’s very cruel treatment, so she decides to run away from home.

In a lengthy afterword, Wilson tells us that many children continue to be treated badly and encourages them to ask for help:

‘When I write my books about troubled children I do my best to give them happy endings. I can’t work that magic in real life. But if you’re really anxious about anything, remember that Childline is there to help you. They will listen to you and understand’.

I like the way that this fictional account does include some graphically violent scenes which makes it more authentic and also shows us how powerful adults can be in exploiting and ruining their own children’s lives. The time in which the story is set was a time of increasing awareness about the abuse of children and the growth of philanthropy that started to challenge the status quo. The existence of a refuge for distressed girls in London run by Miss Sarah Smith saves Clover from potential homelessness and worse and was based on similar projects that were founded by similarly charitable individuals at the time.

The blend of believable characters, an engaging plot and snippets of social history all work together to make this another very readable story. Wilson even introduces another of her well -loved characters, Hetty Feather the foundling girl into the narrative. This is a vibrant fictional world that I would imagine her fans are delighted to inhabit and I daresay this book will be as popular as all the others before it.  And I’m also sure that there are plenty more to follow because the formula clearly works.

Karen Argent

November 2016