Tracy Beaker is back . . . and she's just desperate for a role in her school play. They're performingA Christmas Caroland for one extremely worrying moment, the irrepressible Tracy thinks she might not even get to play one of the unnamed street urchins. But then she is cast in the main role. Can she manage to act grumpy, difficult and sulky enough to play Ebenezer Scrooge? Well, she does have a bit of help on that front from Justine Pain-In-The-Bum Littlewood . . .

As Tracy prepares for her big moment, Cam is the one helping her learn her lines. But all Tracy really wants to know is if her film-star mum will make it back from Hollywood in time to watch her in her starring role.

JACQUELINE WILSON is an extremely well-known and hugely popular author who served as Children's Laureate from 2005-7. She has been awarded a number of prestigious awards, including the British Children's Book of the Year and the Guardian Children's Fiction Award (forThe Illustrated Mum), the Smarties Prize and the Children's Book Award (forDouble Act, for which she was also highly commended for the Carnegie Medal). In 2002 Jacqueline was given an OBE for services to literacy in schools and in 2008 she was appointed a Dame. She was the author most borrowed from British libraries in the last decade.

'A brilliant writer of wit and subtlety' THE TIMES 'She should be prescribed for all cases of reading reluctance' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 'Has a rare gift for writing lightly and amusingly about emotional issues' BOOKSELLER