The Jacqueline Wilson Christmas Cracker

by Jacqueline Wilson, Nick Sharratt (Illustrations)

The Jacqueline Wilson Christmas Cracker is packed with brilliant Christmas stories, including a brand-new tale from Jacqueline, and classic favourite Starring Tracy Beaker, in which Jacqueline's most famous heroine gets the lead part in her Christmas play! There are festive puzzles, tasty Christmas recipes, perfect present tips, and fun Christmas facts. Merry Christmas from Jacqueline Wilson!

Genres: Childrens, Middle Grade, Christmas

320 pages, Paperback

First published September 25, 2014

About the author

Jacqueline Wilson was born in Bath in 1945, but spent most of her childhood in Kingston-on-Thames. She always wanted to be a writer and wrote her first ‘novel’ when she was nine, filling in countless Woolworths’ exercise books as she grew up. As a teenager she started work for a magazine publishing company and then went on to work as a journalist on Jackie magazine (which she was told was named after her!) before turning to writing novels full-time.

One of Jacqueline’s most successful and enduring creations has been the famous Tracy Beaker, who first appeared in 1991 in The Story of Tracy Beaker. This was also the first of her books to be illustrated by Nick Sharratt. Since then Jacqueline has been on countless awards shortlists and has gone on to win many awards. The Illustrated Mum won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award, the 1999 Children’s Book of the Year at the British Book Awards and was also shortlisted for the 1999 Whitbread Children’s Book Award.

Double Act won the prestigious Smarties Medal and the Children’s Book Award as well as being highly commended for the Carnegie Medal. The Story of Tracy Beaker won the 2002 Blue Peter People’s Choice Award.

Jacqueline is one of the nation’s favourite authors, and her books are loved and cherished by young readers not only in the UK but all over the world. She has sold millions of books and in the UK alone the total now stands at over 35 million!

In 2002 Jacqueline was awarded the OBE for services to literacy in schools and from 2005 to 2007 she was the Children’s Laureate. In 2008 she became Dame Jacqueline Wilson.

Reviews

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Christmas Cracker is a GREAT book! It has lots of exciting stories in it.

The Tracey Beaker stories are so BRILLIANT that in fact they are my favourite stories in the whole book!

I definitely recommend everyone reads it.

[Louise · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was good but it could have been better as some of the short stories were just extracts from her other books. My favourite story was the first on 'Dad's new job' which is quite an inventive story.I would recommend people to read it but DO NOT expect an amazing read.

[Eleanorsusannat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Väga põnev raamat. Räägib erinevate laste jõuludest, aga Tracy Beaker on peategelane.
Hea on selle raamatu juures see, et seal saab palju nalja.👍🏻

[Ria · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a sweet collection of festive short (and also longer) stories all with a seasonal twist and including one starring her most famous creation Tracy Beaker who is putting on a Christmas production at school of Dickens "Scrooge."
Interspersed with cookery, easy recipes, quizzes, information about Christmas traditions this a bumper book full of festive fun and peppered with cute illustrations throughout.
A great read for kids and adults alike!

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars for ‘Starring Tracy Beaker’ and I like that there were snippets of other stories that i remember reading when I was younger, it made me feel very nostalgic. I still like the writing style and think 10 year old me would have loved this book!

[Amy Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun Christmas themed short stories from beloved characters and a main story from everyone’s favourite Tracy Beaker. Jacqueline Wilson’s books hold a special place in my heart, they bring me happy memories from my childhood and will happily re-read them as an adult!

[Rebecca Whelan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jacqueline Wilson was always a go to author as a kid and I was just reading this one to decide whether it was worth keeping for my daughter when she’s older - it wasn’t too bad and I hope she will enjoy it

[Faith Carnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Activities and stories is all I'm going to say .

[Camile Doubtfire · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was so lovely to revisit some of my favourite characters and hear what they get up to at Christmas time but I wish they were all original stories, some are from other jaqueline wilson books which would be quite annoying if you had already read them.

[Diya Ashok · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel like this book is going to be nice

[Aileen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had a lot of different stories based on different familys

[Violet-May Davey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely enjoyed. It shows the essence of Christmas and I would recommend.

[Lottie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Sheree Putt]

awesome book

[kella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Light hearted easy read - perfect for Christmas!

[libs :p · Rating 1 out of 5]

TRACY BEAKER’S CHRISTMAS
3 Stars
Okay. Not great but it was quite short.

*

DAD’S NEW JOB
4 Stars
Quite a cute Christmassy story. I recommend:)

*

GARNET’S RETURN
3 Stars
It’s been a long time since I read Double Act, but it’s okay? A pretty basic Christmas story to be honest.

*

HETTY FEATHER’S CHRISTMAS
2 Stars
I have read the first three books in the Hetty Feather series long ago, and I don’t really remember anything. Therefore, this story was quite confusing for me lol.

*

STARRING TRACY BEAKER
4 Stars
This was the only Tracy Beaker story that I didn’t read when I was younger and I’m really glad that I read it. It was actually really fun and, being a drama kid, I really enjoyed the play aspect of it :)

*

EM’S CHRISTMAS
4 Stars
This story is frankly just the opening chapter of Clean Break, cut off at a point to make it look like a happy story. However, it was still fun. I just don’t appreciate the literal copy and paste lol.

*

CHARLIE’S CHRISTMAS
1 Star
I have no idea what is going on. Who is Lottie? Why is she in a window? Who is Jo? This is clearly a reference to another one of her books (I’m guessing the Lottie Project?) but unlike the other stories in this book, it’s not very accessible to anyone who hasn’t read the book previously.

*

HAPPY NEW YEAR
2 Stars
Okay I guess. Very short and seemed very ‘message-ish’ compared to the others

*

[antoanaxo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this book was awsome.The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars was because of the second story.
1 story
I loved how we get another tale about Tracy because she is the most imaganative,energetic girl I've read about.5/5 stars.
2 story
I HATED the main character!She is so selfish and rants on about wanting an iPod ok we get it you don't have to rub it in.I know I am critical but I expect a lot from Jacqueline Wilson.
3 story
Although I haven't read double act I still enjoyed it.
Starring Tracy Beaker
The story is amazing.If you don't know who Tracy Beaker is you must live behind a rock and deep down into the earth.
4 story
I enjoyed rereading a bit of Clean Break.
5 story
I loved reading a bit about Charlie's Christmas and what she does.
6 story
Much more interesting than 2nd one.
DEC 2015- I still have the same opinions but I think I enjoyed it more this time

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Merry Christmas gift from Jacqueline Wilson, this book has a variety of short stories featuring much loved characters from her various book series. There’s a brand-new tale as well as the classic favourite Starring Tracey Beaker, in which everyone’s favourite heroine lands the lead role in her Christmas play.

After each story is a festive puzzle, tasty recipe, perfect present tips, or piece of Christmas trivia that relates to the story. After Ruby and Garnet’s Christmas story there is a recipe for making gingerbread twins and after Hetty Feather’s story fun facts about Victorian Christmases are listed.

A fun, cheerful read that let us revisit favourite characters, as well as introducing them to new readers. One to buy any tween girl for a stocking stuffer!

[Purelybooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jacqueline Wilson will stay with me forever

[Just_me · Rating 3 out of 5]

My daughter has loved reading Christmas stories of some of her favourite characters. Sweet book.

(With thanks to Toppsta and Yearling for the opportunity to read and review this book)