Girls Under Pressure by Jacqueline Wilson

Magda replies, 'Wow, I hope so' and steers the other two upstairs, where they join a queue to discover what all the fuss is about. While they shop, they notice a large buzz of an event going on upstairs. Plot Įllie and her two best friends, Magda and Nadine, are Christmas shopping at the Flowerfields Shopping Centre. Like the rest of the series, Girls under Pressure is told from the viewpoint of Eleanor 'Ellie' Allard, a plump thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her father, her stepmother, Anna, and her little half-brother, Eggs. The book follows the story of a 14-year-old girl named Ellie who is struggling with issues of body image, peer pressure, and self-esteem. It is aimed at pre-teen and teenage readers. It was published in 1998, the sequel to Girls in Love and followed by Girls out Late and Girls in Tears. (Feb.Girls under Pressure is the second book in the Girls series, written by Dame Jacqueline Wilson, a noted English author who writes fiction for children.

Sympathetic and perceptively portrayed supporting players further enrich the novel, including Dol's only friend, Oliver, a wise boy also dealing with a needy mother the big-hearted foster mother who takes in Dol and Dol's own newly discovered birth father. I wished I didn't always get stuck with dolphins').

And her sense of humor leavens the grim trappings of her situation (' a little silver dolphin on a silver chain. The young heroine's candid narrative convincingly and poignantly lays bare her pain and vulnerability as well as her pluck and resilience. When he invites Star to come live with him, Marigold further unravels, culminating in a difficult decision for Dol. Marigold, still obsessed with her long lost lover Micky, Star's father, successfully searches him out at a concert and brings him home to meet his daughter. The author deftly balances the pressures placed on Star and Dol, who often wind up caring for their mother and hiding her condition (revealed finally as bipolar disorder) from others, with more universal childhood experiences such as flirting with boys (for Star) and making friends (for Dol). Marigold, a binge drinker, subjects the girls to dramatic, sometimes frightening mood swings, which render her by turns delusional, agitated and withdrawn. Subsisting on welfare, the trio has moved frequently, which has been especially hard on Dolphin (aka 'Dol'), who, unlike Star, is plain, wears hand-me-downs and is constantly teased by peers. Ten-year-old narrator Dolphin lives with her 13-year-old sister Star and their beautiful, tattoo-covered mother, Marigold, in a Housing Trust flat outside London. ) again affectingly portrays an adolescent in a remarkably real and wrenching situation.

Girls Under Pressure by Jacqueline Wilson