The book<The Illustrated Mom> by Jacqueline Wilson can basically be considered as a good book.

The plot is very clear. It is well organized with a simple plot line. Star and Dolphin are the two daughters of Marigold, a single mother who loves staying up late and drinks a lot. When their dad Mickey finally shows up, Star, the older sister, also the only related daughter to Marigold jumped at the chance and went living with her father. Dolphin and her mother were miserable, in the end Star learned her lesson and came back when she heard that Marigold was sick and lying in the hospital. The story has a very simple plot line. For example, the real father of Star, the missing tattoo on Marigold and the fact that Dolphin is not her child. Details of the book were gradually added in as the plot progresses. However, the story was not as engaging as I thought it would be. Even though it’s a great story, it develops really slowly. It took one chapter to explain something really simple. Also, the author could have added a few more details and branch out more. There is not enough information. The two lives of the different daughters form a clear contrast. The author wrote one’s life far more interesting than the other. So I often felt like flipping over pages. The ending’s too predictable. It’s the old-fashioned happy ever after ending. The ending can be uncovered half way through the book. And if the climax of the book can be more mysterious, the plot will be more engaging. So these are my opinions for the plot line of this book.

I think the author did a decent job on creating the characters in <The Illustrated Mom>. Star is a good example of round, dynamic character, developed through real things and actions. As the oldest child, Star has a lot of burden on her shoulder and she is tired of taking care of her childish, unresponsable mother, Marigold; tired of being in charge of everything in her life. She thought that no one understood her and out of some popularity stress she hangs with the “cool kids”. She’s also a dynamic character. Her personality changed through the story. She grew from acting mature to being mature and she changed form a person who was superficial to a person who had depth. Dolphin, also one of the main characters, she is a round but static character in the book, developed through descriptions. As a person who had a lack of confidence, she doesn’t make friends often. To Dolphin, books and crayons are the best company during her free time. It says in the book that she is not popular; she’s lonely and not pretty, which was the contrary of her sister. The reason why I put her in the static category is she’s always been presented as the responsible-better-than-her-older-sister sister. She always had this inner maturity and she’s always more reliable. She has no personality beside these. To me, a person should have his or her own personality trait, or else, the person’s not real. As you can see, Jacqueline Wilson created characters that are different, and sometimes even contradictory, but she has this magical ways to mash them up together perfectly. Therefore, I find that all the characters are very intruding and they are definitely spotlights of her stories.

This book is basically satisfying, the plot and characters are all fascinating. It suits intermediate English learners, and I would recommend this novel to many others.