Jacqueline Wilson also made the 1999 Whitbread Awards shortlist. "The Story of Tracy Beaker" won the 2002 Blue Peter People's Choice Award. "Girls in Tears" was the Children's Book of the Year at the 2003 British Book Awards. Two of her books were "Highly Commended" runners-up for the annual Carnegie Medal: "The Story of Tracy Beaker" (1991) and "Double Act" (1995). In June 2002, Wilson was appointed an OBE for services to literacy in schools and from 2005 to 2007 she served as the fourth Children's Laureate. In that role Wilson urged parents and child-care providers to continue reading aloud to children
Noah Marullo television acting experience, appearing as Billy, the son of Stephen Mangan, in the Channel Four comedy series "Free Agents". In 2009, he was given the role of Gus Carmichael in the CBBC show "Tracy Beaker Returns", a sequel to "The Story of Tracy Beaker". He spent the Summer 2009 filming for the show in Newcastle, which was shown weekly at the beginning of 2010. He said "I had a fantastic summer filming Tracy Beaker and have made lots of new friends on set". His character, Gus, has autism spectrum disorder, which Marullo said was "what is so great about Tracy