The Mum Trap; Your Dad, My Mum

Many children face the dilemma of whether or not to accept a new partner in their parent's lives. In The Mum Trap, a wheelchair-bound 10-year-old and lovesick 13-year-old narrator advertise for a new partner for their widowed Dad, cum new Mum to provide them with essential teen know-how. Strangely, their usually caring Dad has never paid much attention to the bullying suffered by the older girl; neither is any comment made by anyone about the wheelchair-using daughter. This is surely unrealistic, even if her inclusion is laudable. A fun story, nevertheless, with some thought-provoking aspects.

In Your Dad, My Mum, boy meets girl and both complain of their parents new partners, failing to realise that her dad it, of course, seeing his mum. The book is told in diary form, interspersed with the story of his dad, who provides comic interludes as he fails to hold his life together, giving the reader another side to the story. The Nick Sharratt cover may be designed to attract Jacqueline Wilson fans: her books deal with similar issues in a much bleaker, more detailed way. The light-hearted tone of this novel makes the deeper emotions of the characters while allowing readers a chance to address their own feelings, talk with friends or laugh at their own parallel situation. The story is not fully resolved here; we are taken on a whirlwind tour of emotions but are left to imagine the inevitable conclusion.