April has lots of nicknames: there's April Showers, because she's always crying, and April fool, because of when her birthday falls. Her worst nickname of all, though, is Dustbin Baby. That reminds her of how she started out in life: abandoned in a rubbish bin. When she turns 14, April decides that she must find out who she really is, where she came from and, most importantly, who her real mother is.
There have been lots of people she's called Mum, and now she lives with Marion, but April wishes she could remember her birth mother. She even wonders if it might be possible to find her... Perhaps if April can achieve her ambition, she will feel strong enough to shake off the nicknames and the memories of some awful times in her past, for ever.
Tessa Peake-Jones reads Dustbin Baby, a compelling listen for older children about one girl's search for her real family. Jacqueline Wilson has sold over 20 million books in the UK and has been awarded an OBE for services to literacy in schools. Among her many awards are the Smarties Prize, the Guardian Children's Fiction Award and Blue Peter's People's Choice Award. You can join the official Jacqueline Wilson fan club at www.jacquelinewilson.co.uk.
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"Moved from place to place, she has little sense of who she really is. Now April is fairly happily settled with her foster mother, Marion. But she's desperate to recall what happened in the intervening years, and to see if she can find out where she really came from in the first place.
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??? (4 out of 5 stars)