Dolphin is a young girl living in the wake of her tattooed mother Marigold’s manic depression. With her older sister, Star, on the brink of adulthood and facing the traumas of adolescence, and her mum sinking further and further into her illness, Dol has no-one to turn to when the constant bullying at school causes her to withdraw into her own world, and she begins to cope with the reality of her life by fantasising that she is a witch.

The Illustrated Mum is Jacqueline Wilson at her very best, introducing a difficult subject to young readers with a compassion that initiates an understanding of a very serious problem without condescension or scare tactics.