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
Tracy Beaker Series 6 finale for Mike's wedding. Tracy Beaker is introduced as a ten-year-old girl living in a children's residential care home nicknamed the "Dumping Ground". The nickname is explained in "The Story of Tracy Beaker" as being where children in care are "dumped" when they are "past their sell-by date". She has been described as a modern heroine, with regular looks and curly brown hair. It is revealed that she has been placed in care not because she is an orphan but owing to her mother not being good at looking after her. Tracy imagines that her mother is a