The Story of Tracy Beaker Read online

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  DELL YEARLING BOOKS are designed especially to entertain and enlighten young people. Patricia Reilly Giff, consultant to this series, received her bachelor's degree from Marymount College and a master's degree in history from St. John's University. She holds a Professional Diploma in Reading and a Doctorate of Humane Letters from Hofstra University. She was a teacher and reading consultant for many years, and is the author of numerous books for young readers.

  To Bryony, David, Miranda,

  Jason and Ryan

  My name is Tracy Beaker.

  I am 10 years 2 months old.

  My birthday is on May 8. It's not fair, because that dopey Peter Ingham has his birthday then too, so we just got the one cake between us. And we had to hold the knife to cut the cake together. Which meant we only had half a wish each. Wishing is for babies anyway. Wishes don't come true.

  I was born at some hospital somewhere. I looked cute when I was a little baby but I bet I yelled a lot.

  I am inches tall. I don't know. I've tried measuring with a ruler but it keeps wobbling about and I can't reach properly. I don't want to get any of the other children to help me. This is my private book.

  I weigh pounds. I don't know that either. Jenny has a scale in her bathroom but it's in stones. I don't weigh many stones. I'm little and skinny.

  My eyes are black and I can make them go all wicked and witchy. I quite like the idea of being a witch. I'd make up all these incredibly evil spells and wave my wand and ZAP! Louise's golden curls would all fall out and ZAP! Peter Ingham's silly squeaky voice would get sillier and squeakier and he'd grow whiskers and a long tail and ZAP!… there's not room on this bit of the page, but I've still got all sorts of ZAPs inside my head.

  My hair is fair and very long and curly. I am telling fibs. It's dark and difficult and it sticks up in all the wrong places.

  My skin is full of pimples when I eat a lot of sweets.

  Stick a photo of yourself here.

  I'm not really cross-eyed. I was just making a silly face.

  I started this book on I don't know. Who cares what the date is? You always have to put the date at school. I got fed up with this and put 2091 in my Day Book and wrote about all these rockets and spaceships and monsters zooming down from Mars to eat us all up, as if we'd all whizzed one hundred years into the future. Miss Brown got really annoyed.

  Things I like

  My lucky number is 7. So why didn't some fantastic rich family make me their foster child when I was seven, then?

  My favorite color is blood red, so watch out, ha-ha.

  My best friend is Well, I've had lots and lots, but Louise has gone off with Justine and now I haven't got anyone just at the moment.

  I like eating everything. I like birthday cake best. And any other kind of cake. And Smarties and Mars bars and big buckets of popcorn and gummy spiders and Ben & Jerry's and Big Macs with french fries and strawberry milk shakes.

  My favorite name is Camilla. There was a lovely little baby at this other home and that was her name. She was a really sweet kid with fantastic hair that I used to try to get into loads of little braids and it must have hurt her sometimes but she never cried. She really liked me, little Camilla. A family picked her to be their foster child quick as a wink. I begged her foster mom and dad to bring her back to see me but they never did.

  I like drinking strong beer. That's a joke. I have had a sip of light beer once but I didn't like it.

  My favorite game is playing with makeup. Louise and I once borrowed some from Adele, who's got tons. Louise was a bit boring and just tried to make herself look beautiful. I turned myself into an incredible vampire with evil shadowy eyes and blood dribbling down my chin. I really scared the little ones.

  My favorite animal is Well, there's a rabbit called Lettuce at this home but it's a bit limp, like its name. It doesn't sit up and give you a friendly lick like a dog. I think I'd like a Rottweiler—and then all my enemies had better WATCH OUT!

  My favorite TV program is horror movies.

  Best of all I like being with my mom.

  Things I don't like

  the name Justine. Louise. Peter. Oh, there's heaps and heaps of names I can't stand.

  eating stew. Especially when it's got big fatty lumps in it. I used to have this horrid foster mother called Auntie Peggy and she was an awful cook. She used to make this slimy stew that looked like throwup and we were supposed to eat it all up, every single bit. Yuck.

  Most of all I hate Justine. That Monster Gorilla. And not seeing my mom.

  Stick a photo of you and your family here.

  This was when I was a baby. See, I was sweet then. And this is my mom. She's ever so pretty. I wish I looked more like her.

  The people in my own family are My mom. I don't have a dad. I lived with my mom when I was little and we got on great but then she got this Monster Gorilla Boyfriend and I hated him and he hated me back and beat me up and so I had to be taken away to a children's home. No wonder my mom sent him packing.

  My own family lives at I'm not sure exactly where my mom lives now because she has to keep moving around because she gets fed up living in one place for long.

  The phone number is Well, I don't know, do I? Funny, though, I always used to take this toy telephone in the playhouse at school and pretend I was phoning my mom. I used to have these long, long conversations with her. They were just pretend, of course, but I was only about five then and sometimes they got to be quite real.

  Things about my family that I like I like my mom because she's pretty and good fun and she brings me lovely presents.

  There's no point filling this part in. I haven't got a foster family at the moment.

  I've had two. There was Auntie Peggy and Uncle Sid first of all. I didn't like them much and I didn't get on with the other kids so I didn't care when they got rid of me. I was in a children's home for a while and then I had this other couple. Julie and Ted. They were young and friendly and they bought me a bike and I thought it was all going to be great and I went to live with them and I was ever so good and did everything they said and I thought I'd be staying with them until my mom came to get me for good but then …I don't want to write about it. It ended up with me getting thrown out THROUGH NO FAULT OF MY OWN. I was so mad I smashed up the bike so I don't even have that anymore. And now I'm in a new children's home and they've advertised me in the papers but there weren't many takers and now I think they're getting a bit desperate. I don't care, though. I expect my mom will come soon anyway.

  My school is called It's Kinglea Junior School. I've been to three other schools already. This one's okay, I suppose.

  My teacher is called Ms. Brown. She gets angry if we just call her Miss.

  Subjects I do Story-writing. Arithmetic. Games. Art. All sorts of things. And we do Projects, only I never have the right stuff at the Home so I can't do it properly and get a star.

  I like Story-writing best. I've written so many stories, and I do pictures for them too. I make some of them into books. I made Camilla a special baby book with big printed words and pictures of all the things she liked best, things like TEDDY BEAR and ICE CREAM and YOUR SPECIAL FRIEND TRACY.

  I also like Art. We use poster