In advance of Jacqueline Wilson publishing her first adult novel as a continuation of this series, I thought I would revisit them. No rating, as I'm most definitely not the target audience for this series!
This first novel introduces us to Ellie, Magda and Nadine who are entering Year 9 (I'd slightly forgotten how young they are). Ellie desperately wants a boyfriend and for fear of being left out invents a perfect of paper guy whilst also contending with body image issues, and her stepmum and Dad's arguments and her Mum's death. Meanwhile Magda wants any boy to pay attention to her, and Nadine is dating a cool older boy - what could go wrong.

I sped through this and was reminded of just how well Wilson captures teenage girlhood in all its messiness, and even when there's quite neat storyline resolutions they never feel outside the realm of reality. I particularly liked her take on Nadine's relationship and the challenges there, and Ellie's relationship with her stepmum. Some have criticised this for Ellie's obsession about her body but this rang, unfortunately, true to me - especially given this is set in the 1990s.

I'll be making my way through the others very soon!