The Illustrated Mum

From the novel by Jacqueline Wilson. Starring Michelle Collins, Alice Connor and Holly Grainger.I’ve found out this was shown last year on telly, but I only just watched it from when it was shown on ITV(?) a few days ago. This was a really long film – 2 hours I think, and my daughters did get bored towards the end. I have to say, I’m not sure if the film would encourage me to buy the book – it was just so dismal. Nothing good happened to the characters and the film didn’t make it clear what happened to the elder sister – I assumed she joined Dolphin, but it wasn’t said.
If you haven’t read the book by Jacqueline Wilson, or seen the film, then it’s all about a Mum who is slightly crazy and can’t really look after her children (called Dolphin and Star) properly. They each have a different Dad and their Mum, Marigold is a bit obsessed by one of them. I imagine the book actually would tell the story a lot better as you’d probably get the details like what actually happened between Star and that boy; how Dolphin managed to deal with the bullies at school and why exactly was the number 7 so important?
It would probably be good for kids to see that coping with life, reality and a family, isn’t always easy for adults, and it did well at showing it from that point of view. My youngest daughter clung to my arm throughout most of it, so I’m glad she understood that I’m relatively sane!