Betty MacDonald

Nancy and Plum

  • Nancy and Plum

  • 'Big snowflakes fluttered slowly through the air like white feathers and made all of Heavenly Valley smooth and white and quiet and beautiful'

    So here we are on Christmas Eve, locked up in rotten Mrs Monday's boarding house with no presents and no Christmas dinner, while all the other children have gone home for the holidays. I'm Nancy, by the way, and this is my sister Plum. Luckily, we're both pretty good at making up stories about the adventures and pretty dresses that we'd like to have, and that helps us put up with Mrs Monday and her awful niece Marybelle. But one day, we're going to escape, and maybe we'll find a nice home and a family all of our own. Wouldn't that be just wonderful?

    Includes exclusive material: In ‘The Backstory’ you can take the quiz and find out why Nancy and Plum is Jacqueline Wilson's favourite children's book!

    Vintage Children’s Classics is a twenty-first century classics list aimed at 8-12 year olds and the adults in their lives. Discover timeless favourites from The Jungle Book and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to modern classics such as The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Betty MacDonald was born Anne Elizabeth Campbell Bard in Boulder, Colorado, in 1908. The daughter of an engineer, she spent her early years in the mining towns of Idaho, Montana and Mexico. When she was nine, her father took the family - his wife and five children - to Seattle, where Betty lived until shortly after her marriage. Among her books for children are Nancy and Plum, first published in 1952, and the popular American classic series Mrs Piggle-Wiggle.

Our Use of Cookies

We use cookies on this site to enable certain parts of the site to function and to collect information about your use of the site so that we can improve our visitors’ experience. For more on our cookies and changing your settings click here

Our Use of Cookies

We use cookies on this site to enable certain parts of the site to function and to collect information about your use of the site so that we can improve our visitors’ experience.

For more on our cookies and changing your settings click here

Strictly Necessary

Strictly Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions. See More.

Analytics

Analytics cookies help us to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. These cookies may be set by us or by third-party providers whose services we have added to our pages. See More.

Preferences & Features

Preference and Feature cookies allow our website to remember choices you make, such as your language preferences and any customisations you make to pages on our website during your visit. See More.

Targeting / Advertising

Targeting cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you and your interests. They perform functions like preventing the same content from reappearing, ensuring ads are displayed and, in some cases, selecting content based on your interests. See More.