Book description
The brilliant new book from bestselling author Jacqueline Wilson, set
in the children's ward of a 1950s hospital.
It's 1953, the year Elizabeth is to be crowned Queen of England.
Elsie Kettle can't wait to go to London to see the celebrations on
Coronation Day. Elsie lives with her Nan - her mum works as a
showgirl, so she's not around very often. Spirited and imaginative,
but often lonely, Elsie longs for a best friend. Luckily, she and Nan
are very close; Elsie just wishes she was allowed a cat to keep her
company sometimes.
Then tragedy strikes. Nan and Elsie both fall ill with tuberculosis,
and Elsie finds herself whisked away to the children's ward of the
hospital. Confined to bed for months on end, Elsie finds it very hard
to adapt to the hospital's strict regime. But she invents astonishing
ways of entertaining the other children on the ward, and for the first
time finds herself surrounded by true friends - including Queenie, the
hospital's majestic white cat.
Finally, Elsie is well enough to leave hospital. But before she
does, she has one very special, very unexpected visitor...
Jacqueline Wilson is an extremely well-known and hugely popular
author who served as Children's Laureate from 2005-7. She has been
awarded a number of prestigious awards, including the British
Children's Book of the Year and the Guardian Children's Fiction Award
(for The Illustrated Mum), the Smarties Prize and the
Children's Book Award (for Double Act, for which she was also
highly commended for the Carnegie Medal). In 2002 Jacqueline was given
an OBE for services to literacy in schools and in 2008 she was
appointed a Dame. She was the author most borrowed from British
libraries in the last decade.
'A brilliant writer of wit and subtlety' THE TIMES
'She should be prescribed for all cases of reading reluctance'
INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
'Has a rare gift for writing lightly and amusingly about emotional
issues' BOOKSELLER
