Nancy and Plum

Nancy and Plum

Summary

'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.

Reviews

  • It's a story about two sisters who run away from an orphanage and for young girls, it has everything going for it. There are wonderful descriptions of clothes, dolls and girls' friendships and an adventure. It was my favourite book when I was that age, too
    Jacqueline Wilson, Independent

About the author

Betty MacDonald

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.
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