The Diamond Girls

The Diamond Girls is a children's novel by Jacqueline Wilson. The main protagonist and narrator is Dixie Diamond, the (current) youngest in a family of four sisters, all from different fathers. Their mother, who is now expecting another child, which she believes to be a boy, decides to move them from their home in a flat on a council estate to a larger council house. However, when Dixie moves towards changing her new "brother's" nappy, she realises he's a girl, and that her mother has been pretending out of her longing for a boy. Dixie tries to comprehend the actions of her family whilst hiding the secret of their new neighbour, Mary, who is abused by her apparently depressed mother. Dixie's sisters are Martine, Jude, and Rochelle.

Plot

The Diamond Girls is about 4 girls (later 5) called Martine, Jude, Rochelle and Dixie. Their mother, Sue, is heavily pregnant with her 5th child and believes it is a boy since she reads tarot cards and peers into a crystal ball. They live in a 3-bedroom apartment in the North Block in Bletchworth which was their best flat ever. Sue decides to move to a proper house on the Planet Estate. Judging the pictures, Sue and the kids think it's a great house but when they arrive, it's the opposite. As they move, they hire Dixie's dad's friend Bruce to help move the furniture. However, the day they move in, Sue goes into labour. Bruce and Martine go with Sue to the hospital and the others are left alone. Dixie then explores the garden and meets a shy girl called Mary who has been abused by her mother. When the girls need candles, they go to Mary's house and Dixie hears Mary's mother slapping her. Sue comes home a day later with Sundance, a baby boy. However, when Dixie changes Sundance's nappy, she sees that Sundance is a girl. She keeps this secret to herself and confronts Sue about him. Sue begs Dixie to keep it a secret so she does. Meanwhile, Rochelle gets a boyfriend who is quite a few years older than her. Jude then learns kung fu from Bruce and Martine, unable to cope with the house and moving, runs back to her boyfriend after Sue finding out that Martine's pregnant.When Dixie is playing with Mary, Mary tells Dixie that her mother threw her teddy out. Dixie offers to lend her her toy budgie for the night but then regrets it. Dixie later goes to Mary's house to get him back and ends up getting badly injured when Mary jumps out of the window, after Dixie told her to jump of the garden wall. Martine comes back after breaking up with her boyfriend because his mother and him kept badmouthing the Diamonds, despite her pregnancy. After Dixie woke up she saw lots of people with a sickly scent, and is informed that Mary's mother is getting help and Mary is staying with other relatives. Sue then tells everyone that Sundance is a girl, not a boy.

Characters

The Diamond Girls is a book about four sisters and their heavily pregnant mother moving to the house of their dreams. When they get there they find out all is not what it seems.

Sue Diamond

Sue is the mother of the four (later five) Diamond girls. She is apparently quite promiscuous and at their original estate, Bletchworth, was referred to as a slag. All of her children have different fathers, and Sue probably has forgotten the name of Sundance's father, or as Martine observes, 'maybe she didn't even know it in the first place'. Her disreputable behaviour notwithstanding, she genuinely loves her daughters and does have some reasonable excuses, such as death or abuse, for parting with her previous partner. She has lovely thick black hair and wears short skirts. She chose unusual names to make up for her own common name. Dixie suggests she changes the spelling to be more unique. The characters listed below are the main characters and the daughters of Sue Diamond:

Martine Diamond

Martine is the oldest of the Diamond girls, aged 16. Her mother met her father Dave in Year Ten and when Dave got Sue pregnant, he tried to stick by her, but could not as he was still very young. At first, she is reluctant to leave because of being away from her boyfriend, Tony. However, after her sister Sundance is born, she decides to stay. At the end of the book it turns out she is pregnant. She has her mum's thick black hair, but dyes hers blonde, and because her mum wears short skirts, she wears jeans, low slung so 'you can see the top of her thong when she bends forwards'.Martine tries to take care of Sundance her baby brother(sister), but as there is a secret involved only Dixie knows, mother Sue makes sure to have the baby away from the rest of the family, which sadly is one of the reasons why Martine escapes, although she returns at the end of the novel after hearing about Dixie's accident. She decides to keep her baby.

Jude Diamond

Jude is the next oldest, aged 14. Her father, Dean, was abusive towards Sue, and even though she states that 'he could make my heart melt' she had to leave him. She is Dixie's favourite sister, and a tomboy. She gets into fights with a gang (including Rochelle's boyfriend), but gets on well with a large boy who, according to Dixie, has rude phrases on his jacket. She is smallish and fourteen. She is small, but squat and very tough. Dixie states Jude is clever, although she does not particularly try hard at school. She is also being taught Wing Chun by Bruce, and is the second sister to warm up to him after Dixie.

Rochelle Diamond

Rochelle is 12, and is girly and a flirt. She has long blonde curls, a heart-shaped face, pouty lips and (according to Dixie) watches herself in the mirror all the time. She soon gets a boyfriend in a member of the gang Jude fights with. Her father was the aspiring musician Jordan who died of a drug overdose when she was two years old. Her mother Sue met Dixie's father Terry while arranging Jordan's funeral. Dixie thinks that she may not even remember her father, Rochelle acts as though it was the big tragedy of her life. Rochelle likes teasing Dixie. Although Rochelle looks like a big ball of glamour and flirt on the outside, she can be a softy in the inside.

Dixie Diamond

Dixie is the youngest of the Diamond girls and also the narrator, age almost 10. She is small and skinny and was born prematurely. Her father is an embalmer called Terry, who got her mother Sue pregnant while she was arranging her late husband Jordan's funeral. Terry has another family with a wife called Stella and three young daughters. He rarely talks to Dixie or contacts her; however at the end of the book he visits Dixie in hospital and says he wants to introduce her to her half-sisters. Dixie has a stuffed budgie called Bluebell, who she keeps up her cardigan sleeve. Out on a day with her father, he sees she has goosebumps, and bought her a big, blue cardie. It has grown with her through two years. She befriends six-year old Mary, who is abused by her mother, who is apparently suffering from depression. Dixie breaks both legs after catching Mary when she jumps out of a window. Dixie feels a special bond with Sundance.

Bruce

Bruce is a working companion of Terry, and at first keeps asserting that he is 'not Terry's mate'. Bruce is described as having a bad haircut, glasses and a sweet but goofy smile. He treats Dixie like a daughter and she in return adores him. Bruce damages his already bad back halfway through the book, and while heaving Rochelle's fancy dresser up the stairs, he damages it, and is unable to walk or sit up, and has to stay at the Diamond residence lying on a mattress. It is suggested he and Sue might begin a romantic relationship. Dixie calls him 'Uncle Bruce'.

Terry

Terry is an embalmer and is Dixie's father, who got her mother Sue pregnant while she was arranging her late husband Jordan's funeral. Terry has another family with a wife called Stella and three little girls. He does not really ever talk to Dixie or contact her; however at the end of the book he visits Dixie in hospital and says he wants to introduce her to her half-sisters.

Tony

Tony used to live nextdoor to the Diamonds. He is Martine's ex-boyfriend. He got her pregnant two days before the Diamond family left for the Planet Estate. When Martine briefly leaves the house and the family to go back to Bletchworth, she stays with him, but eventually breaks it off beacause he insulted the diamonds and comes back.

Mary's Mother

Mary's mother abused Mary because of a long post-natal depression, according to her husband. She forced Mary to eat crusts by stuffing them down her throat, cut her nails back to the quick, slapped her for befriending Dixie and threatened to cut out her tongue when she told a friend about her mother hurting her and also threatened to slit her throat after telling a friend about her nails. She ends up in hospital because of her mental state at the end of the book. Mary's mother has long blonde hair and goes around her house keeping everything pin- neat.

Mary

Mary is a 6-year old who looks immaculate on the outside, but her mother has O.C.D and is very abusive towards her. She befriends Dixie, and she actually witnessed the abuse. Mary has long blonde hair which her mother ties in plaits. Mary is afraid of Dixie at first,but gets used to Dixie and her family.