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The Bed and Breakfast StarJacqueline Wilson
The Bed and Breakfast Star
by Jacqueline Wilson
Elsa's family are put in one room of a grotty bed and breakfast, and Elsa tells jokes at every single person who will listen.
A story about children and families, funny and moving in tone. We would put it with children of 8–11, and at a reading age of about 9 for reading alone.
Worth knowing before you buy
- Homelessness
- Separated from family
None of this makes it a bad book — often the opposite. It is here so you can decide whether it is right for your child now or in a year or two.
Our take on this book
Elsa and her family, homeless, are living in one cramped room of a run-down bed and breakfast hotel, and Elsa copes the only way she knows how — by telling jokes, endless terrible jokes — until a real crisis gives her a chance to be a genuine star. Jacqueline Wilson tackles homelessness with characteristic honesty and heart, and Elsa is a wonderful narrator: funny, resilient and determined to keep everyone's spirits up even when things are grim. It is accessible and Nick Sharratt-illustrated, and though the subject is serious — poverty, a cramped and frightening living situation, a family under strain — Wilson handles it with warmth and hope, and nothing that would distress a reader unduly. For an eight- to eleven-year-old it is a moving, funny, eye-opening read that puts a likeable child's face on a hard subject, and one of Wilson's most affecting stories about a family holding together against the odds.
If they like this, try these
Chosen by matching age, reading age, tone and subject — not by what is selling.
Double ActJacqueline Wilson
Gangsta GrannyDavid Walliams
Mr StinkDavid Walliams
The Story of Tracy BeakerJacqueline Wilson
The Suitcase KidJacqueline Wilson
Or let them write their own.
Nothing gets a child reading like a story they invented themselves. Your child plans the characters and the plot, and we write, illustrate and print it as a real book with their name on the cover as the author.
Find another book
Tell us the age, the reading age and what they like, and we will suggest a handful.