Rose Rivers (World of Hetty Feather)

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You know very well that my father would be delighted to introduce you to the members of the Caledonian Club,’ Mama needled him. I find the information fascinating about life in Victorian times such as the privileges Rupert as a boy has that Rose as a girl doesn’t, like going to school.

ROSE RIVERS lives in a beautiful big London house with her artist father, querulous mother, six siblings and seven servants – and finds her life stif ling. They were really rich but not that happy and it made me sad when Rose went off to boarding school and her dad did not say goodbye. I was frustrated but I Love Jacqueline Wilson and her Victorian books and Clover and Hetty and if there was another book I would give Rose another chance because she had so much potential! I do hope there is a sequel- I'd love to see how Rose goes in school, and I'm a sucker for books set in boarding schools!

An upper-class Victorian family would have probably been just as scandalised to discover their thirteen-year-old snogging another kid of the same age. I opened my package eagerly, though I feared it would be a Mrs Molesworth or a Miss Yonge, the sort of authors considered suitable for a girl of thirteen. Eventually she ends up kissing him and he is banished from the household while she is sent away to school. Rose was way more tolerable against Rupert then she is with everyone else even though he was a liar and can be very self-centred.

I truly enjoyed this latest offering from Jacqueline but did feel the book could be shorter however the story was full of the usual childish antics from her siblings. I would recommend this book to other pupils especially if they like stories told in first person, as it is told in the perspective of the thirteen-year-old girl in the Victorian era. The little ones are so much younger than you, and poor Beth isn’t really able to be a companion to you, even though you’re closer in age. Even Papa seems out of his element there, though he sits dutifully beside Mama for half an hour every day, resolutely keeping her company. The relationship with Paris Walker and the age gap was also very uncomfortable considering she's 13?

I’m afraid I’m not inspired by whiskery old gentlemen with bulging waistcoats and tartan trews,’ Papa said. I know you find still-life compositions boring, Rose, but they teach you observation and perspective and shading. Alphonse will be tucked up with Mama on the chaise longue in the drawing room, both of them staring into space with their beady eyes. Papa is frequently paint- stained, and his hands are either rainbow coloured with chalk or black with charcoal. I couldn't help but psychologise Rose's parents - Rose and her mum are more alike than they believe which is why she's so critical with her.