Tracy Beaker's Thumping Heart

Tracy Beaker #3.5

by Jacqueline Wilson, Nick Sharratt (Illustrator)

It's Valentine's Day in the Dumping Ground and Tracy Beaker is very scornful of all the fuss made about cards and presents... until she gets one herself! Weedy Peter has decided he wants Tracy to be his Valentine and he's given her his beloved nan's treasured gold locket. Tracy is over the moon - it must be worth a fortune! What could she sell it for... or swap it for...?





Follow Tracy in this special Comic Relief adventure as she heads for fame and fortune. Will she swap Peter's locket live on TV? And is it possible that Tracy herself might lose her heart...?

Genres: Childrens, Fiction, Contemporary, Middle Grade, Short Stories

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

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

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love a good Tracy Beaker story.

[Kim · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm not really sure if this is worth a full review or not but I figured technically it is a book so I'll review it but it will just be a really short review (the whole book is only something like 70 pages)

This book was a short story created for Red Nose Day (2009?!), in it we follow Tracy and the other children at the Dumping Ground as they celebrate Valentine's Day. Tracy gets given a beautiful present and decides she can swap it on a tv show for something even better! 

I used to be the world's biggest fan of Tracy Beaker, she could do no wrong, I loved her, I was obsessed! However unfortunately I think I am at that age where I have finally grown out of the Tracy Beaker books (a phrase I never ever thought I would say). In this book though Tracy REALLY annoyed me. She was selfish, childish and just a horrible child.

I can't believe the adults in the book didn't intervene, I'm aware that it is just a story and that Tracy can do what she likes but seriously, I doubt any adult is going to sit by and let Tracy get away with this stuff, they could see she was causing distress so why not step in and sort it out? Ugh I have definitely reached adult age because normally this wouldn't bother me. 

Now in 2009 young me probably would have loved this story, however 2019 me (seriously 10 years ago?!) just found Tracy to be too much of a brat. I would usually look at this from the perspective of the intended audience however for this book I just can't. Children shouldn't be thinking this is acceptable behaviour, Tracy was a spoilt brat and needed grounding and having a stern talking to. I can't recommend this book unfortunately, my adultiness is getting in the way!

[Cherlynn | cherreading · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Tracy Beaker and the first three books, but this one was really redundant and boring. Instead of feeling sorry for Tracy Beaker, who always redeems herself by the end of each book despite acting like a brat for the most part, she comes across as spoilt, selfish and plain mean in this latest installment. It really got on my nerves.

[Anthony Buck · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was brilliant, as is the rest of the series.

[Avery Liu]

I didn't know there was another Tracy book!

[Aoibhe Dunne]

I'm in love with jacky can't believe she wrote another Tracy beaker without me knowing

[Jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

This short story was included in with my copy of The Story Of Tracy Beaker. I appreciated getting an extra story, but honestly it’s not worth reading unless you were a child of the publication date, who knew of Tracy Beaker and watched CBBC. I never watched Swap Shop, way back in 2009 (that's a whole ten years after the original Tracy Beaker story was published!), and I'm an adult now.

I mean, it’s well-written, but it does feel a bit repetitive of what’s already in The Story Of Tracy Beaker. If it was introducing Tracy Beaker or even just the books (as opposed to the TV series) to someone, I don’t think that would bother them.

Basically Tracy gets a gold heart off her friend Peter. The heart used to belong to Peter's deceased nan. Tracy decides to try and swap the heart for something she deems better, more valuable. It’s the main conflict in the story and I honestly felt like we didn’t get enough of a satisfying resolution for it. I doubt that Tracy really actually learnt anything, or if she did, that will be retconned in the other books. I was willing for Tracy to do the right thing, but it just wasn’t a satisfying enough payoff.

Alright as a short story for children of our time though.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was quite a cute short story focusing on the way in which a young girl can get so completely involved in her first crush, and how all consuming it would be for that young girl. Also, when that young girl just so happens to be Tracy Beaker, you know you’re going to get some fireworks.

This was really cute and shows a completely different side of Tracy Beaker to what we have seen in some of the previous books which helps to soften her character in quite a lot of ways.

In many ways, this story isn’t completely necessary to go along with the stories around Tracy Beaker but if you happen to enjoy the series as a whole then it is a nice one to read so that you’ve read the whole series instead of just focusing on the main books.

[Philip · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been searching for this book for years - due to it being a limited World Book Day release it has been irritatingly difficult to get hold of. But finally I have been able to read this missing piece of Tracy Beaker.

It is really good! It is short and snappy - Tracy (and the whole group of familiar characters) are all at their best. The whole story brings the charm and spirit that made the original book such a hit. The plot is simple and fun with great emotional beats. It feels a little weird to have Barney Harwood appear so majorly as himself, but it's these sort of meta elements that are typical of one-off charity books.

Great story, 5 stars.

[Abigail Woodruff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part 2 (as this came in a bind up with my version of The Story of Tracy Beaker). In an ideal world I wouldn't rate this (but I have as other websites i freqeuent require me to choose a star rating) because it's not a book written for me. I'm clearly not the target audience. I wanted to read a British pre-teen staple as I grew up in America and have been curious as I've seen so many wonderful things about Jacqueline Wilson and was curious what was being read back in the day. I can't say I particularly liked Tracy Beaker but I suppose that is part of her storm. She gives me pre-teen Junie B Jones vibes.

[Lia · Rating 5 out of 5]

It made a bit confused. It says it's book 3.5 but it is part of the book 1. Hahah whatever. Anyway, it is short and I wasn't very interested although I love the idea that she finally decided to return the heart locket to Peter -- he owns it and it's the only thing that reminds him of his nan. Yeah. Bye.

[Shahrun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic adventure with Tracy Beaker and the residents of the Dumping Ground. This time they celebrate Valentine’s Day and end up on TV taking part in Swap Shop. Perfectly accompanied by Nick Sharratt’s illustrations.

[Dancer.Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Veselá a zamilovaná knížka :) Sice trošku kratší, ale aspoň jsem ji mohla přečíst za jedno nudné odpoledne, když není co dělat. Jacqueline je Jacqueline.

[Millie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A typical fun adventure of Tracy Beaker! Great short story for children who take a little longer to finish a book!

[Hilel Hodawya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super funny and adorable! Love this!

[on storygraph (macclown) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun little side story, but feels a bit too shallow for Tracy Beaker. Still had me smiling!

[Logan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ending was abrupt

[Lucy Hastings · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kinda boring

[Kiera · Rating 2 out of 5]

This short story was included with my copy of the story of Tracy Beaker. I probably wouldn’t have bought it separately. This was quite boring compared to the other books in the series.

[Life Miguel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice book, I like the end where Tracy pushes the bed onto the pool full of slime, so that Justine will get slimed too!

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

[Lottie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Jappreet Kaur]

good book