Katy by Jacqueline Wilson, illustrated by Nick Sharrat
Puffin £12.99
ebook £6.49, Age 9+
Wilson has updated Susan Coolidge’s pious, moralising 1872 classic What Katy Did to make it palatable for today and a truer book. Taking the original’s characters and names (although Izzie becomes a stepmother instead of an aunt), Wilson translates its incidents into modern parallels. Where Coolidge saw the wilful 12-year-old Katy learn (from a “School of Pain”, after she has a disabling accident) to be the domestic hub of her household, kind to her siblings and to enjoy dusting the insides of drawers, Wilson’s convincing Katy, whose experience is shocking, learns to go on being her gutsy self and to brave prejudice. Helen, Katy’s invalid mentor, is now an inspiring academic and achiever — while goodness is not rewarded by walking again. This is an important, honest, empathetic story.