2023 EDIT: Part of my 2023 clear-up, of books I no longer like, or am no longer interested in, or remember well as standing out, or find as special anymore, or I otherwise will not miss.
[In this case, it is me letting go of all of Jacqueline Wilson's books; ultimately decided after rereading 'Hetty Feather'. A lot of them have not aged well, in my opinion, or are just baffling, shocking. I cannot abide the author's child abuse-excusing, fatphobic, internalised misogyny-filled, and sometimes ableist books for children. There are often other other problematic tropes and clichés, too. It doesn't matter if they're childhood favourites, or are "cute and harmless". If I can let go of 'Harry Potter', then I can do the same for these books, no problem. Goodbye, Jacqueline Wilson.]
Final Score: 3.5/5
Original Review:
I've read five of the "newer" Jacqueline Wilson books this week (they are quick reads for kids), with another one planned soon, and 'Rent a Bridesmaid' is a story I especially like and adore. It's cute, pink, girly, frothy and sweet - just what I hoped for.
With a great, plausible premise for modern England - a little girl working as a "bridesmaid-for-hire" for various weddings (well, three at the moment) - and lovely, believable, and relatable and flawed characters and scenarios, 'Rent a Bridesmaid' is delicious fun.
Nine-year-old Matilda "Tilly" Andrews is given her new best friend's bridesmaid's dress as a present, a raspberry-coloured, cakey delight of a dress, that the friend, Matty, hated wearing. But Tilly loves it so much that she wants a chance to wear it for a wedding immediately. But no one she knows is getting married yet, least of all her dad and her estranged mum, and she'll soon outgrow the dress, and then it will be too late. So she and Matty come up with an ad for a shop window that says she'll rent herself as a bridesmaid to anyone's wedding, free of charge even.
Little Tilly meets some lovely people this way, and forms new connections with others, including a closer bond with her wonderful but nervous and standoffish dad.
'Rent a Bridesmaid', like nearly all of Wilson's books, is like a soap opera for children, and I mean that as a positive. It is a positive and charming girls' book that deals with serious issues that any child, including myself as one, can instantly relate to. Such as separated parents, dealing with disappointment, anxiety and expressing anger, letting children draw and imagine whatever they want without so much fuss from well-meaning but misguided adults, rocky and changing friendships, supportive school teachers (as they need to be), and love overcoming any prejudices.
The first wedding Tilly attends is that of an elderly couple, the sweetest, kindest people you could meet, and the second wedding is for a gay couple, also fantastic people. Such sincere and important messages for children are presented, and it is probably the best depiction of queer people that Wilson has ever written (she's made some serious muckups in her past books so that isn't saying much, but still, credit where it's due: at least the gay men here are not one-note tokens with gay as their only characteristic, and they are happy. Still waiting for at least one canon LBGTQ female now, Wilson).
I could relate to Tilly on a lot of accounts from when I was a child; I like her not just because of her name. Let her draw dinosaurs and monsters! Let her play "Warrior Princesses" with her friend Matty. Let her express herself. I think that her dad's and her teacher's concerns over her "violent" imagination has less to do with them thinking that this is how she copes with her mum leaving her, than it is about plain old sexism. Tilly was even sent to a clinic at one point in the past, where she met an anorexic girl. She likes "girly" things as well.
She's just herself. Suppressing her creativity is unhealthy. It will only make her worse. Let this child be.
Despite this drawback on his part, I love Tilly's dad, who tries hard despite working so much. He worries about her, but he'd do anything for her, and he even saves her from drowning in a pool (Wilson's protagonists, as well as a tendency to draw, also seem to be very timid swimmers for some reason). Tilly also starts off having a nanny figure, before being practically adopted by Matty's family, and it is in this instance where perhaps the funniest line I've ever read in a Jacqueline Wilson book comes:
“Dad said Aunty Sue was a godsend. If that was so, I wasn’t surprised. God was probably happy to have got rid of her.”
That is hilarious.
'Rent a Bridesmaid' also includes cameos from another Jacqueline Wilson book, 'The Worst Thing About my Sister', which I haven't read.
There are references to 'Inside Out' and 'Frozen'. 2016 publication!
One more side note: Wilson's books contain A LOT of descriptions about food and what the child characters are eating, so it's usually sweet things. And this book is about weddings. And baking. I tend to read these books before and after I've eaten, so I'm already full up by the time these huge food portions show up in the story. It is thanks to this that, ironically, I may have lost my appetite as of this moment. Or at least my sweet tooth.
Do I hear wedding bells? What about friendship bells? Daddy bells? 'Rent a Bridesmaid' is a touching, heartfelt, big strawberry-cake-with-icing treat. It's a cute and updated version of Wilson's stories for young girls, containing realistic events and characters, and modern social morals.
Final Score: 4/5
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