Starring Tracy Beaker Read online

  'I'm Tracy Beaker. This is a book all about me. I'd read it if I were you. It's the most incredible dynamic heart-rending story. Honest.'

  THE STORY OF TRACY BEAKER

  Meet Tracy in her first ever story. Tracy is ten years old.

  She lives in a Children's Home but would like a real home one day, with a real family.

  STARRING TRACY BEAKER

  Tracy is back – and this time she's determined to be a star!

  When she's cast in the main role in her school play, her biggest worry is whether her mum will make it back from Hollywood in time to see her perform . . .

  THE DARE GAME

  The third Tracy Beaker book – join Tracy as she tries out living with Cam, and living on her own in a very unusual place . . .

  READ ALL OF TRACY'S

  ADVENTURES!

  www.jacquelinewilson.co.uk

  Also available by Jacqueline Wilson Published in Corgi Pups, for beginner readers: THE DINOSAUR'S PACKED LUNCH

  THE MONSTER STORY-TELLER

  Published in Young Corgi, for newly confident readers: LIZZIE ZIPMOUTH

  SLEEPOVERS

  Available from Doubleday/Corgi Yearling Books: BAD GIRLS GLUBBSLYME

  THE BED & BREAKFAST STAR THE ILLUSTRATED MUM

  BEST FRIENDS JACKY DAYDREAM

  BURIED ALIVE! THE LOTTIE PROJECT

  CANDYFLOSS MIDNIGHT

  THE CAT MUMMY THE MUM-MINDER

  CLEAN BREAK SECRETS

  CLIFFHANGER STARRING TRACY BEAKER

  THE DARE GAME THE STORY OF TRACY BEAKER

  THE DIAMOND GIRLS THE SUITCASE KID

  DOUBLE ACT VICKY ANGEL

  DOUBLE ACT (PLAY EDITION) THE WORRY WEBSITE

  Collections:

  THE JACQUELINE WILSON COLLECTION

  includes THE STORY OF TRACY BEAKER and THE BED AND BREAKFAST STAR

  JACQUELINE WILSON'S DOUBLE-DECKER

  includes BAD GIRLS and DOUBLE ACT

  JACQUELINE WILSON'S SUPERSTARS

  includes THE SUITCASE KID and THE LOTTIE PROJECT

  JACQUELINE WILSON'S BISCUIT BARREL

  includes CLIFFHANGER and BURIED ALIVE!

  Available from Doubleday/Corgi Books, for older readers: DUSTBIN BABY

  GIRLS IN LOVE

  GIRLS UNDER PRESSURE

  GIRLS OUT LATE

  GIRLS IN TEARS

  LOLA ROSE

  LOVE LESSONS

  Join the official Jacqueline Wilson fan club at

  www.jacquelinewilson.co.uk

  This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

  Adobe ISBN: 9781407045405

  Version 1.0

  www.randomhouse.co.uk

  STARRING TRACY BEAKER

  A C O R G I YEARLING B O O K 978 0 440 86722 7

  First published in Great Britain by Doubleday, an imprint of Random House Children's Books Doubleday edition published 2006

  Corgi Yearling edition published 2007

  1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

  Text copyright © Jacqueline Wilson, 2006

  Illustrations copyright © Nick Sharratt, 2006

  The right of Jacqueline Wilson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

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  THE RANDOM HOUSE GROUP Limited Reg. No. 954009

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  Printed in the UK by CPI Bookmarque, Croydon, CR0 4TD

  To the staff and pupils at

  Charles Dickens Primary School

  I'm Tracy Beaker. Mark the name. I'll be famous one day.

  I live in a children's home. We all call it the Dumping Ground. We're

  dumped here because no one

  wants us.

  No, that's total rubbish. My mum

  wants me. It's just she's this famous film star and she's way too busy

  making movies in Hollywood to look after me. But my mum's coming to see me at Christmas. She is. I just know she is.

  'Your mum's not coming to see you in a month of Sundays,' said Justine Littlewood. 'Your mum's never ever coming back because she doesn't want anything to do with an ugly manky bad-mouthed stupid show-off who wets the bed every ni—'

  7

  She never managed to finish her sentence because I leaped across the room, seized hold of her hair and yanked hard, as if I was gardening and her hair was a particularly annoying weed.

  I ended up in the Quiet Room. I didn't care. It gave me time to contemplate. That's a posh word for think. I have an extensive vocabulary. I am definitely destined to be a writer. A successful glossy rich and famous writer, not a struggling scruffy hack like Cam.

  I mused ( another posh word for think!) over the idea of a month of Sundays.

  8

  It would be seriously cool to have a lie-in every single day and watch telly all morning and have a special roast dinner and never have to go to school. But then I pondered (posh alternative number three) on the really bad thing about Sundays. Lots of the kids in the Dumping Ground get taken out by their mums or dads.

  I don't. Well, I see Cam now, that's all. Cam's maybe going to be my foster mum.

  She's going to classes to see if she's suitable. It's mad. I don't trust my stupid social worker, Elaine the Pain.

  I don't want Cam to get cold feet.

  Though she keeps her toes cosy in her knitted stripy socks. She's not what you'd call a natty dresser. She's OK.

  But a foster mum isn't like a real mum.

  Especially not a famous glamorous movie star 9

  mum like mine. It isn't her fault she hasn't shown up recently. She's got such a punishing film schedule that, try as she might, she simply can't manage to jump on a plane and fly over here.

  But she is going to come for Christmas, so there, Justine Now-Almost-Bald-And-It-Serves-You-Right Littlewood. My mum promised. She really really did.

  She was going to see me in the summer. We were going to have this incredible holiday together on a tropical island, lying on golden sands in our bikinis, swimming with dolphins in an azure sea,

  sipping cocktails

  in our ten-star

  hotel . . .

  Well, she was going to take me out for the day.

  It was all arranged. Elaine the Pain set it all up

  – but my poor mum couldn't make it. Right at the last minute she was needed for some live television interview – I'm sure that was it. Or maybe Hello! or OK! magazine wanted an exclusive photo shoot. Whatever.

  So she never showed up, and instead of being understanding I heard Elaine ranting on to Jenny at the Dumping Ground, telling her all sorts of stupid stuff, like I was crying my eyes out. That was a downright lie. I would never cry. I sometimes get a little attack of hay fever, but I never cry.

  I f