I looked at some existing middle grade books of the same diary style to The Story of Tracy Beaker.

Jacqueline Wilson examples

I looked initially at the typesetting of previous Jacqueline Wilson books. I noticed that the images are quite scattered throughout the book and text wrapping is used often. There are also pages where there is little in the way of text and imagery being the main part. I like this effect for the age group as it breaks up the text well. Even though it is a diary however, the text is still in a serif style which is interesting. This could be for ease of reading, but to me it doesn’t look authentic from the character’s point of view.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Dork Diaries

In The Diary of a Wimpy Kid the font is in the style of handwritten text written by a younger person. I like this effect and it looks quite wonky but is readable nonetheless. I like the use of lines so there is the effect of writing in a notebook. I would like to use this effect in my assignment. It seems fewer, larger images are used in this title compared to the Jacqueline Wilson books.

The Brilliant World of Tom Gates

The Brilliant World of Tom Gates also uses a handwritten font but is slightly different as it is fairly small but with a larger amount of leading to make it more readable. I like the use of arrows to point to the imagery which would be how a child would write in a notebook. I also find it interesting that some images are put in the middle of the text. This is fairly uncommon as it can disrupt the text but because the images are small, it works well.

Conclusion

For the typesetting of The Story of Tracy Beaker  I think I will utilise some of the features from the previous examples. I like the lined page effect and the handwritten font. However, I will have to find a font that is reflective of a girl’s handwriting to fit in with the character and make it more authentic. I will still place the images as Jacqueline Wilson has in her previous titles so it is still recognisable as her work.