Little Stars (Hetty Feather)

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Little Stars is the fifth book in the Hetty Feather series by Jacqueline Wilson, and I think that it is a great way to end the series. Although Jacqueline has said that she thinks Little stars will be the last in the series I think that there is the possibility of a sixth book as the end is pretty open to further events.

After that time is over Hetty is invited to live with them, but she declines and works as a mermaid at a freak show, where she befriends Freda, the 'female giant'. And don't even get me started on the little (and not so little) things there are to love about him: literally a tap dancer; wonderful with younger children (I have to admire the way he never ever patronises dear Diamond, though it would have been silly of him to do so seeing as he's not that much older and very nearly still a child himself); takes snide comments about himself like a champ but will not keep still the second they're directed at his girls; literally knows two trades, a showbiz one and a practical one; last but not least, we stan a short king in this house, if I may use the vernacular.Hetty takes Diamond to visit Bignor and Flora, who's got a new friend in the show, Lucy Locket, the littlest woman in the world.

certain persons we'll discuss in a sec; they're rather good parallels of each other, both institution-raised children, both servants fresh out of their respective institutions, both free spirits refusing to bow down to the society that would have them trampled underfoot if they'd let it; both harbouring a dream of performing on stage and making it true separately yet together, in a way. Hetty and Diamond quickly become the Little Stars of Mrs Ruby’s show, alongside many colourful acts – including an old friend from Hetty’s past, Flirty Bertie. This is the fifth book of the Hetty Feather series, and needless to say, I also adored this book, and still do. She was an interesting study on two varieties of people I seem to delight in reading about as I find them most fascinating: on the one hand, the child performer, more or less forced into performing to varying extents, who reverts back to acting like a much younger child the second she can afford to, and ends up a strange mix of baby and mini-adult, never too sure which she is; on the other hand, and perhaps an extension of the first, the child who has had to grow up much too fast due to hardships much to early in life and, as a result, ends up a mix of traumatised cynic and innocent idealist, somehow.

She snuck into the boy's wing by stealing some boy's uniform to check on Gideon, and ran into Saul while doing so. At the start of this book Hetty and her younger friend Diamond are traveling across part of England on a penny farthing. After putting together a ventriloquist show and naming themselves the little stars, Hetty learns that it’s actually harder work than it looks. I really liked how Hetty seemed to do a full circle, from the circus, to the music hall, to her foster home and in the end, living with Harry when she joins Marina Royal.