Allreaders.com
Author Nina Bawden booklist (click here)

Book Review By Liza Rosette
The Outside Child by Nina Bawden

Jane Tucker lives with her two aunts whilst her father works on ships as a sailor. Her friend Plato Jones is a brainy twelve-year-old boy who knows a lot about life and the world. When Jane goes to visit her father in one of his ships, she finds some photographs of him with a woman and two small children.
She finds out later that they are her stepmother, brother and sister. Jane has never met them because her stepmother because she never wanted to see her stepdaughter. Jane is determined to find out why this is, and wants to meet her stepbrother and sister as well. Jane and Plato then start gathering information about her mystery family by pretending to be detectives, and eventually Jane comes face to face with her family, only to be sent away by her stepmother.
As Jane wishes that she was not the outside child of the family, old and unpleasant memories from her infancy return to haunt her, and then she puts pieces to an unconscious puzzle together, as to why she is disliked by her stepmother.


Plot & Themes
Tone of book? - very sensitive (sigh)
Time/era of story - 1980's-1999
Internal struggle/realization? Yes
Struggle over
Is this an adult or child's book? - Age 11-14

Main Character
Gender - Female
Age: - a teen
Ethnicity/Nationality

Main Adversary
Identity: - Female
Age: - 20's-30's
Profession/status:
How sensitive is this character?

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 2 ()
Small town? Yes

Writing Style
Amount of dialog - significantly more dialog than descript
Back To Main Menu