February 2018 Book of the Month | In a nutshell: an evacuee story as imagined by the one and only Jacqueline Wilson Wave me Goodbye is a really emotional book. It made me cry at one point. Its about an evacuee called Shirley. It starts off slow and her life changes . Her mum makes her go on a train to a school called St Agatha Convent so that she is safe but she doesn' want to go. She meets some awful girls on the train but also someone who becomes her best friend. Double Act won the prestigious Smarties Medal and the Children’s Book Award as well as being highly commended for the Carnegie Medal. The Story of Tracy Beaker won the 2002 Blue Peter People’s Choice Award. My favourite character is Shirley Smith (The main character) she loves books and can't put them down (like me). She has a very bright imagination, and can imagine any character from any of her books and make them come to life.

As well as winning many awards for her books, including the Children’s Book of the Year, Jacqueline is a former Children’s Laureate, and in 2008 she was appointed a Dame. Jacqueline Wilson writes with humour, insight, compassion and understanding. Her characters all are credible and engaging. This book was both worrying to read and exciting. I would like to read more Jacqueline Wilson books.Her 48-year-old daughter Emma is a professor of French literature and film at Cambridge University. The author is incredibly disciplined. The house where she ends up staying has a secret room,one where no one is allowed to enter. She finds the key one day goes in and discovers a giant doll's house. There's lots of questions to be answered which she discovers as the story moves on. Wilson has an incredible ability to inhabit her child characters so precisely and Wave Me Goodbye will be like Nina Bawden's Carrie's War for a new generation of children learning about our country's past Belfast Telegraph

September, 1939: At the breakout of the Second World War , ten-year-old Shirley is sent away on a train. She doesn't know where she's going, or what's going to happen to her when she gets there. All she has been told is that she's going on 'a little holiday'. I really enjoyed this book by Jacqueline Wilson. It was intruiging and I couldn't put it down. My favourite character in the whole book was Shirley with her love for books and her eager-to-impress attitude. My favourite places in the book were probably the grounds of the house. They sounded really beautiful and mysterious.

What I like about the book: I like the bit in the story when Shirley meets Jessica, as it's nice that they are friends. Beforehand, Shirley doesn't have any friends at all. I think the saddest bit in the story is when Shirley departs on the train, and she leaves her mum waving at her on the platform. I find that bit sad because Shirley doesn't want to leave her mum at all. This book was amazing I couldn't stop reading! I loved Archie because of his funny personality and joyful attitude. I thought the history in the book was definitely very realistic and it has inspired me to research more about World War 1 and the evacuees.