Hayley Westwood
I bought this book as a gift for an American friend, and couldn't resist giving it a quick read before packing it up to send to her.
It's such a fun, short and sweet book, but has lots of actually interesting facts about Wales and the Welsh language.
I would definitely recommend it as a gift, and I know my friend will really enjoy reading it.
Sara Crewe, the original manifestation queen ✨️
I recently read A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett with my friend Kristen, and I enjoyed it overall.
Given that it was written in 1905, there are some problematic elements to the story now, and some of the language is quite old fashioned. However, it was a good story, and I loved Sara's imagination and the stories she told to herself and her schoolmates.
There are some good messages in the book, that carry forward into the modern day, including that it's important to make the best of a bad situation where you can, and to seek to find the positives. And if that fails, a bit of maladaptive daydreaming helps
I've recently bought and been rereading some books from my childhood, and even bought and been reading some books that I wanted to read as a child but wasn't allowed to have.
This has included reading some Jacqueline Wilson books, and even though some elements of the stories are a little bit dated now, they really are so good.
In particular, The Illustrated Mum really hit me emotionally.
I won't go into it too much, but I grew up with a Mum who was severely mentally ill, just like Star and Dolphin, though my Mum didn't have tattoos!
She did have paranoid schizophrenia (or manic depression as it used to be known) and had also had to undergo electroshock therapy and was in and out of hospital for pretty much my whole life, similar to Marigold in the book.
I really empathised with and felt for the two girls in the story, but especially with Dolphin. She is SO young and she doesn't fully understand what is going on. She often feels left out and left behind by others (both in her family unit, and at school), but she is desperate to be seen and met with some love.
Both girls are carrying SO much on their shoulders considering they are so young, and in truth they have been robbed of a true childhood. Nowadays the impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are better known, and teachers are better equipped at recognising when a child might need some help or intervention, but in the 1990s when this book was first published that still wasn't really the case (speaking from experience).
Considering that this was written quite a while ago, Jacqueline Wilson really was ahead of her time in understanding generational trauma and the cycles of neglect being repeated, the patterns of manic episodes and delusion, and the subtle ways this comes out through children. Dolphin has some compulsive behaviours, with her tapping and counting to seven on a regular basis, and she uses maladaptive daydreaming and dissociation to help her sleep and be calm. She also goes through life feeling terrified of most adults, and a lot of them are judgemental and quite cruel towards her.
The only criticism I have for the book is that the ending felt quite rushed and quickly wrapped up, without any particular resolution. But then I also think that is pretty true to life; mental illness is messy, and there isn't always a resolution or a happy ending. For me there certainly hasn't been, as I lost my Mum to suicide in my mid-20s and have struggle with CPTSD for most of my life (though only recently realised that's what it was).
If I'd have had this book to read when I was younger I think it would have helped me immensely.
