Best Friends

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In the first book of the Girls series, Ellie falls hard for Kevin, an older boy she has seen around town but never really met or spoken to. She later develops a relationship with Dan (a boy her own age) and has to accept that Kevin will never live up to her romantic fantasies as he is gay; however, Ellie and Kevin do form a genuine platonic friendship. Annoying Younger Sibling: Many characters qualify with this, such as Vita and Maxie to Em in "Clean Break" and Kenny to Jayni in "Lola Rose". Sometimes the protagonists only see them as this because they are often made to look after them on their own. Barbara in Deep Blue is very close to her father, who has been coaching her to become an Olympic diving champion from a very early age. Part of the book's central conflict is her regret about ruining their bond after she decides she wants to give up diving. The Münchausen - Tracy Beaker, sort of. The tall tales she tells are about her mother rather than herself.

Subverted in Love Frankie where, although never explicitly described as a lesbian, Frankie openly dates Sally for a while and firmly tells her family that she is only attracted to girls. In Clean Break Em is reunited with her stepfather but comes to an understanding that things cannot be the same between him and the family again. She even tells her mum that "wishes never come true the way you want." In Katy, the title character is withdrawn from a class without the consent of, or even discussion with, the pupil and her family, purely on the say-so of somebody else's mother.Marigold in The Illustrated Mum tries to be a good parent, but frequently leaves her children alone all night while going out, and is often not able to take care of them when depressed. Marigold is somewhat aware of her tendency to neglect Star and Dolphin, and actually expresses concern that she might be a bad mother.

Does Not Like Men: Jan in Falling Apart is an avowed feminist, dislikes men, and refuses to hang around with boys. When Simon tells Tina he only dated her because of a bet with a friend, he says he was dared to ask out her or Jan but Tina was obviously easier to get. An early novel that Wilson based on this theme was Amber, in which the title character struggles to lead a normal life in spite of her mother's irresponsible hippy/"groupie" lifestyle. Normally timid Beauty Cookson manages to intimidate Skye, her primary bully, after Skye calls her mother a slag.

Other books include:

Missing Mom - Hetty Feather centres around the heroine, an ostensibly abandoned Victorian girl, trying to find her mother. She does. Several other stories have very young protagonists who are left to look after younger siblings alone while the parents work long hours or (in The Bed and Breakfast Star) just sleep all day. Meaningful Name - In The Illustrated Mum, it turns out that Dolphin was named for the fact that her father was the one who finally taught Marigold how to swim. This is especially heartwarming because Marigold claims to not remember much about him.