Delphi's review:

I enjoyed this novel by Jacqueline Wilson. It follows the story of a young girl called Mona, who lives in a cottage with her dressmaker aunt. Their home is situated on the edge of the large Somerset estate, and her aunt pays the rent by making handcrafted clothes for the owner of the manor house, Lady Somerset. When Lady Somerset dies, a new family member inherits the estate.

My favourite character in this book is Mr Benjamin. He is introduced into the story when the inheritance falls into his hands. With his eccentric and sprightly personality, he brings life to the manor with lots of colourful gatherings. He also takes a shine to the young Mona, and invites her to many parties.

This novel makes lots of cultural references to the time it was set in- the 1920s. Whether it is in the vivid descriptions of what the characters wear, music played at parties and even the dancing, (hence the title of the book, Dancing The Charleston).

Towards the end, it felt quite hectic and hard to follow, even with Jacqueline Wilson's flowing writing style. I was also in disagreement with some of the choices made by the characters during the final few chapters. However, it is a charming and entertaining book, and I would recommend it to 10-12 year olds who are interested in the Roaring 20s.

Adeoti's review:

I liked this book very much and I found the Mother of Mona very interesting because she sometimes acted weird around the Somersets and when she danced at the party she regretted it very much. She also did not show much affection towards her daughter and when she was playing as her aunt she hardly ever talked about her mother. I didn’t like Esmeralda and Maggie who were very rude and didn’t listen to Mona very much. Esmeralda was very full of herself and didn’t like Mona very much. I didn't like her because she didn't listen much to people around her and only followed people who were not the best influencers. The time it was set in was interesting because I didn’t know much about it and it was set in a time when the rich people had more power over the poorer people. The plot was exciting and I didn’t know what was going to happen and the end of the story was unexpected and very surprising as I didn’t expect that her aunt would turn out to be her mother and that she was actually a Somerset. I would recommend this to students who like reading and history as this book was very enjoyable and fun to read.

Eliza's review:

I really enjoyed reading this book, especially during lockdown. I found even though the plot wasn’t extremely tense at times, I still wanted to find out what happened to Mona and her Aunt and especially Mona’s mother. I enjoyed reading a book set in a place nearby my home, and I think there were lovely adjectives that really made the setting homely and peaceful. Mona, an only child lives with her aunt at what is described as a little cottage at the bottom of the manor, rented to them by Lady Somerset, a kind soul who gives presents to the children at Christmas.

I found Mona’s aunt a very interesting character, as she keeps to herself and whenever Mona tries to get her to open up she is stern and strict with Mona. Her behaviour was really intriguing and made me want to carry on reading, wanting to find out if or what she was hiding.

I feel as though the way it was written captures the mood of the era extremely beautifully. The exciting new fads, styles, of clothing and dance, and feelings of the modern era battling with the traditional ways of the past. Mona is keen to learn about new styles introduced and I feel like her wanting to keep up sends a hidden underlying message to the reader that good education is key to life especially as the young women of the time period were restrained in marriage and patriarchal ways. Mona wanted to learn and break free from this pattern, and educate herself about the styles.

I had learnt about this time period of history before, but never really from the perspective of a young woman in the countryside. I feel like over the time I read this book, I really connected with the character of Mona. And I felt her emotions as I was reading from her point of view.

Overall I think this book helped me understand a lot of things from that time that I never had even thought about before, and I would recommend it to another student because as well as educating me it inspired me to read more about Somerset, and the areas around where I live in the 20s. Also I found it entertaining and I found I never wanted to put it down.

Hannah's review:

The story was set after WW2 which I'm currently studying at school and which I'm really interested in. The main character Mona is kind, which I liked. I also found it a brilliant shock at the end when she discovered her mum's true identity.

I think it's suitable for Year 4 upwards, not younger children. If Jacqueline Wilson wrote a sequel I'd love to read it and it's made me start on Hetty Feather, Jacqueline Wilson's Victorian series. I give it 5 stars.

Shona's review:

This is a book by Jacqueline Wilson. It's about a girl named Mona who has lost her mother and lives in a cottage with her strict auntie on the edge of the Somerset estate. Her Auntie is the dressmaker for the lady of Somerset Hall.

But when Lady Somerset dies, things start changing for Mona. A trip to Harrods even. I really like the way Jacqueline Wilson writes books in an old fashioned way, she makes it sound like you are actually there. I would recommend this book to ages 9+

Ted's review:

I did not happen to enjoy this book, Dancing the Charleston because there wasn’t enough adventure or mystery to amuse me by reading this historical book. The Character that I found the most interesting was the Auntie because she was a good example of how people treated each other back in the olden days. I learnt a lot of new different facts about times back then like the two main groups, the rich and the poor. The poor had complete and utter respect for all the lords and ladies no matter how mean and disrespectful the where, this was shown when Mona, Auntie’s niece barged into the manager of Harrods office without invite. She was awfully unnerved at first. Also, I learnt of how much different the currency was back then from now. The time that this story was set in made it interesting because unlike normal stories, it was set in a time where us children have not experienced that time set and can only read and listen about it. The book at first was a little serious with the unfortunate death of Lady Somerset and the threat that Auntie and Mona were going to be thrown out of their little cottage but over time things turned more light-hearted because Mona was given a small fortune and Auntie was given a good paying job as a dressmaker. What most stands out about this book is the fact that no matter who they were, rich or poor, everyone acted as they were expected too even if it was not their nature. There were of course exceptions such as Mr. Benjamin, Mr. White and Mona. I would recommend this book to other pupils if they are interested in finding out about how our ancestors and grandparents lived when they were our age. I did not learn any new words but I did find out that people judged very harshly to gentleman who didn’t act like one.