Jacqueline Wilson author page

Jacqueline Wilson biography

Jacqueline Wilson was born in Bath in 1945 and spent most of her childhood in Kingston-on-Thames. She wrote her first novel when she was nine. As a teenager, she began her writing career as a journalist with D. C. Thomson, writing for Jackie, a magazine for teenagers.

She wrote several crime fiction novels before turning to children’s books. Her breakthrough came in 1991 with The Story of Tracy Beaker. Her books include The Suitcase Kid, The Lottie Project, Bad Girls, Vicky Angel, The Illustrated Mum, Girls in Love and Hetty Feather.

Wilson’s work often addresses adoption, divorce and mental illness. The Story of Tracy Beaker was adapted into television spin-offs and a musical stage production. Other adaptations of her work include Double Act, Bad Girls, The Illustrated Mum, Hetty Feather and Girls in Love.

She was the Waterstones Children’s Laureate from 2005 to 2007. During that role, she campaigned for books to be accessible to all children, encouraged reading aloud to young children, and curated Great Books to Read Aloud. She also toured across the UK and met more than 400,000 children and adults during her Laureateship.

Her awards include the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award, the Smarties Prize, the Sheffield Children’s Book Award and the Children’s Book Award for Double Act. Double Act was also highly commended for the Carnegie Medal. The Illustrated Mum won Children’s Book of the Year at the British Book Awards and the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award, and Girls in Tears received the W. H. Smith Children’s Book of the Year Award.

She has written more than 100 books and created characters including Tracy Beaker and Hetty Feather. Picture Imperfect was published by Bantam on 28 August 2025.

Jacqueline Wilson teaching resources

• Jacqueline Wilson’s official website links to official book information, extracts, quizzes, activity pages and videos, including The Best Sleepover in the World, Sleepovers, Double Act, The Story of Tracy Beaker and Four Children and It.
• Puffin Schools’ Jacqueline Wilson resources page collects KS2 materials including a creative-writing pack, five downloadable writing prompts, an 18-minute storytime video with author Q&A, and Nick Sharratt draw-along videos linked to Jacqueline Wilson titles.
• Puffin Schools’ KS2 Creative Writing with Jacqueline Wilson pack provides a downloadable scheme covering big ideas, character wheels, story openings, story problems, storyboarding, plot graphs and worksheet templates for KS2 English.
• Authorfy’s Jacqueline Wilson masterclass includes 13 videos on writing re-imagined stories, character, dialogue and story openings, plus downloadable resources for The Primrose Railway Children and The Magic Faraway Tree: A New Adventure, with curriculum objectives, comprehension questions, activities and extracts.
• Scholastic’s Jacqueline Wilson Resource Pack is a 24-page PDF for Four Children and It, with material for five hours of lessons.
• Teachwire’s Author In Your Classroom episode with Jacqueline Wilson provides a 44-minute classroom podcast and a five-session writing sequence on moving familiar characters into unfamiliar settings, with PowerPoint material, planning sheets and selected clips for each phase of learning.