Clementine
posted in easy reader/chapter book, middle grades, realistic fiction, book review, children's literature |
Clementine by Sara Pennypacker. Illus. by Marla Frazee (2006).
Quite a bit can happen in a week. Just ask third grader, Clementine, who is having not so good of a week. For Clementine, the road to the principal’s office or to her parents’ frustration is paved with her good intentions. Frequently, Clementine tries to fix problems that she encounters with her humorous, one-of-a-kind, logical (albeit sometimes dead-wrong ) solutions.
Pennypacker packs her work with really-could-have-happened-in-the-life-of-a-third-grader problems that Clementine must fix–Clementine “helps” her friend remove the glue from her hair by cutting off her friend’s hair and then coloring it with permanent markers (all in the name of being a good friend), she makes sundry trips to the principal’s office for supposedly not paying attention or other incomprehensible (to Clementine’s mind) reason, and she assists her building supervisor father in his efforts to win the Great Pigeon War.
Clementine’s mind and body prefer constant action, moving so fast that others she encounters find it difficult to keep up but that readers will find delightful. Her theory is that she is allergic to sitting still. She’s constantly being told that she needs to pay attention, but, to her mind, she is paying attention and everyone else’s mind is simply moving too slow. Clementine says, “Spectacularful ideas are always sproinging up in my brain.”
Her spectacularful suggestions for winning the Great Pigeon War against the pigeon’s mess include charging the pigeons for rent or putting diapers on them. Despite Clementine’s best efforts to fix her own and others’ problems, it seems that the world’s rules aren’t quite that logical.
All of her “fixes” gone awry combine with some snippets of conversation she overhears to make Clementine believe that her parents are planning to rid themselves of her since she is the “hard” kid in the family and that her little brother is the “easy” kid (incidentally, Clementine has penchant for calling her brother by vegetable names that she has collected for him, since the only thing worse than being named a fruit is to be named a vegetable such as Spinach, Broccoli, Radish, Rutabaga, Turnip, Zucchini, Lima Bean, Pea Pod, or Celery).
Fortunately for Clementine, her wit and indomitable spirit cause her to persevere until things better. She learns how very special and appreciated she is, even if her fixes do not always pan out. By book’s end, Clementine’s friendships are mended, she is reassured of her parents’ love, and readers are left hoping that stories of other weeks of the never dull Clementine’s life will be forthcoming (see The Talented Clementine for more fruity fun).
In addition to Pennypacker’s charming narration, Frazee’s expressive pen-and-ink drawings capture Clementine’s mercurial emotions and complement both the humorous and poignant vignettes. Clementine is altogether darling, and stories of her life will be felicitous additions to any beginning chapter-book collection.
From the book:
…and nobody could think of anything to do except the regular thing, which is: send me to the principal’s office
See what I mean? Me—paying attention; everybody else—not.
There is a look they teach a person to make in principal school that is not very nice
But I didn’t spin him again, because he throws up on the second ride and somebody has to clean it up which is N-O-T, not me. This is called Being Responsible.
She scrubbed so hard she probably made a hole right through my head skin and my head bone, and now everybody can see right into my brains and I’d better not do any more cartwheels.
