A full page of Sharratt's comic-strip style panels opens each chapter, and 'Floss's Glossary' defines unfamiliar Briticisms. Candy Floss is another gripping and emotionally involving slice of family life from the award-winning, bestselling author and now, the new Children’s Laureate, Jacqueline Wilson. Wilson is on top social-observing form - Christina Hardyment Independent Published On: As usual, Wilson's book provokes both laughter and thought Junior Education Published On: Wilson moves away from familiar mum territory to cast her acute eye on dads - Dina Rabinovitch Guardian Published On. There's a real tenderness to her relationship with her father, fully dimensional in all his flaws, a man whose love for his daughter often clouds his judgment. All that action makes the narrative longer than usual for this age group, but Floss's emotional turmoil should hook girls. This tension paces a novel that contains many compelling, sometimes gritty, elements shopping, gambling, fair-going, romance, a knife-fight and even a scary fire. Meanwhile, her father is losing his shop to bankruptcy and the possibility of homelessness becomes real. Her mismatched clothing, which carries the greasy spoon's scent, makes her the new target of Rhiannon's torments. When Floss chooses to stay with her dad because she realizes he needs her more than her mother does her standing at school suffers. Her best friend, the 'posh and persnickety' Rhiannon, has become materialistic and judgmental Floss can't stand the cruel teasing Rhiannon directs at a new classmate. When her stepfather accepts a temporary transfer to Australia, 'Floss,' as she is called, must choose to spend six months in sunny Sydney or to stay with her father above his failing chip shop. Flora Barnes splits her week between her mother, who has remarried a successful executive, and her father whose situation is less rosy.

The latest from Britain's former Children's Laureate is vintage Wilson.

Candy floss book by jacqueline wilson