My Sister Jodie

Pearl and Jodie are sisters, Jodie is the elder sister and Pearl is the shy younger sister. Their mother and father, Sharon and Joe, decide to move to a place called Melchester College, where they have both got new jobs as the cook and the caretaker. Jodie doesn't want to move but Pearl is glad because she gets bullied a lot at her school but knows that she'll be bullied at secondary school too. On the first night there, they meet Mr Wilberforce the Principal, and his wheelchair-using wife Mrs Wilberforce. As it is the summer holidays not many students are there, apart from tall, badger watching Harley who Pearl makes friends with and three little children: Zeph, Dan and Japanese Sakura, who Pearl likes the best. They also meet the other staff, the assistant head Miss French, the under matron Miss Ponsonby and the gardener, bad boy Jed, who Jodie begins a serious relationship with straight away, even though he's 5 years older than her.

On Pearl's birthday, when she is 11, Harley gifts her with a torch. When Pearl comes home, Jodie demands to know whats going on and Pearl tells her they've been watching badger and didn't want her because she was too noisy. When term starts, Pearl makes friends with a group of girls: Harriet, Clarissa, Sheba and Freya. She enjoys her lessons and isn't bullied, and does well at school. But Jodie has a difficult time.
When she goes off into the woods with two boys, her reputation gets even worse, though she tells Pearl she didn't do anything with them. Also, Jed the gardener is being chased after by some other girls in Jodie's year who she doesn't like at all. Because her classmates refer to her as Ginger Minger, Jodie drastically dyes her hair black, but it goes wrong and comes out purple. Then Jed runs over a baby badger, one of two cubs Pearl and Harley have been watching, and it dies, leaving Jodie,Pearl and Harley distraught. Jodie dumps Jed for the final time, and she sees him with the cleaner's daughter, Tiffany Colgate. Pearl finds a pregnancy test in the bathroom and confronts Jodie, thinking it belongs to her and Jed's which Jodie strongly denies.
At the Halloween party, Jodie dresses up and plays with the children, taking the little boys to their dormitory and Pearl takes the little girls and tells them stories about a pumpkin fairy.
But Jodie conjures up a frightening horror story that scare the little boys.

As a punishment,Jodie has to stand in front of all the school members and tell them that the 'sad white whispering woman' who lives in the tower isn't real.Everyone is being so cruel to Jodie, and one girl keeps teasing her about the 'sad white whispering woman', so on Bonfire Night, Jodie climbs up to the tower and dresses up as the ghost, But then she realizes that little Dan,is very scared, so she pulls the dress off, but tugs too hard, then disaster strikes and Jodie is no longer alive. Pearl and her parents are devastated.

They leave Melchester College to live in a flat in London. Sharon reveals shes having a baby, meaning the the pregnancy test was hers. Pearl isn't keen at first but soon grows to love her new sister May. Pearl says that while she'll be a good big sister to her, she'll never be as good as Jodie.

Sad,funny,good read
5 Stars