"Sylvie and Carl have been friends since they were tiny children. They've always played together, eaten meals with each other's families, called each other boyfriend and girlfriend...and deep down, Sylvie has always believed that they'd end up married to each other. They even have a magical fantasy world that belongs to them alone - as does the Glass Hut where it's all created, at the bottom of Carl's garden. But as they become teenagers, things begin to change. They go to different schools and have different friends. Sylvie still wishes she could spend all her time with Carl. But Carl has a new friend, Paul, who is taking all his attention. Carl seems much less happy to be called Sylvie's boyfriend and in a game of spin the bottle he avoids kissing her. Sylvie can tell his feelings have changed and that her plans for the future may be affected. But can she guess at the true reasons behind it all?" - Plot
Jacqueline Wilson has written many famous books such as Tracy Beaker, Lola Rose and The Illustrated Mum and she seems to always write about certain problems that children and teenagers may face like being in care, running away from home, abuse, divorce and family problems. Her writing style is very unique and I have noticed that lots of the characters have similar
characteristics. In Bad Girls, The Illustrated Mum, Love Lessons and Kiss at least one person in them that is very artistic, and in some of her other books I have noticed that a lot of them have been very imaginative. I have read a lot of her books in the past and I always like to get them from the bookshelf and read them again whenever I have the chance. Most of the books she has written have been illustrated by Nick Sharratt, including Kiss, which makes them very noticeable and individual. Jacqueline has sold a staggering 20 million books in the UK alone, and she is the most borrowed author from British libraries, which is quite an achievement.
Jacqueline Wilson's most recent published book is Kiss, which is a book aimed at teenagers and set in present day Britain. All the main characters are in Year 9 at school so they are around 13-14. Jacqueline said that some of her most vivid memories are from that age and it is an interesting age to write about, and so she wrote Kiss. It differs from some of her other books because it bases itself on the idea of how awful it is to love someone and them not loving you back. Rather than basing it upon one problem I find that there are a lot of teenage issues covered such as underage drinking, bullying, relationships, sexuality, body issues, breakdown of friendships, puberty and truanting. It's good to read about these issues because it makes the story more interesting and more realistic, rather than it being a la-de-da fairytale. You can see how these issues affect the characters and how they deal with them, and so it must be quite comforting for teens who are experiencing them to know how to handle it.
The opening of the book was quite slow and hard to get into because it was basically setting the scene, but once the story really gets started it becomes more interesting. The whole plot is basically like a guessing game as to why Carl is isolating himself and doesn't seem interested in Sylvie, but there are lots of twists and turns on the way. The ending seems to happen really quickly but that might be because I read it all in one sitting as I was engrossed in all the drama. The ending was definitely the most exciting part of the book because that's where everything happens but I enjoyed the book as a whole. It leaves you feeling sorry for Sylvie and feeling inclined to know what is up with Carl. I didn't guess why he isolated himself when really it seems so obvious now, but that just added to the anticipation for the ending.
Some bits could have been cut out because they were slightly boring. Part of the plot included about Sylvie's mum meeting a man on the internet and going out with him which wasn't really necessary, and also about Sylvie's other friend Lucy because she was kind of pointless. Jacqueline has said in an interview that the reason why she talked about internet dating was because she wanted to show us teenagers that just because we think our parents are way past it doesn't mean that they are, and so I do see her point, but nevertheless it was still quite dull to read. One of the main points in the story was about Carl and Lucy's imaginary den called Glassworld which I thought was a bit babyish for 13 year olds, but it showed that Jacqueline Wilson has a fantastic imagination. In Glassworld Carl and Sylvie would invent stories about their alter-ego's King Carlo and Queen Sylvania, so there were other short stories included in Kiss. However, when this happened it felt like Jacqueline Wilson was going off into fantasy land and it didn't really make sense why she decided to include it.
I must admit that some of the things these teenagers do in the book is totally blown out of proportion, because some of the characters are put across as alcoholic sluts and that is definitely what most teenagers of today are really like. Yet, most of the characters are very likeable and believable, my favourite being Miranda who is the most popular girl in the school. She isn't your stereotypical popular teen as she is put across as being quite plump and not that good looking, so it is her charms that make her popular, which I think is a good thing because people's ideas today about looking good is to be stick thin. Miranda gets away with murder and does dreadful things but doesn't give a toss, which makes a marvellous character for a book.
This isn't one of those books that you will find impossible to put down but that doesn't mean it wasn't good and I would definitely recommend it to teenage girls. Even some adults may enjoy it too! I would read it again in the near future when going on holiday or when I have spare time because it was an enjoyable read with a very interesting plot. It had its good and bad parts but overall it was excellent.
Kiss is available in hardback RRP £12.99
'Literary superstar' - Independent 'A true children's writing genius' - Good Book Guide
Pictures of Kiss - Jacqueline Wilson
Kiss
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