Clementine

I didn’t expect to fall in love with this series like I did! When Mom initially recommended the story to me, I listened to it, but while I enjoyed it, I didn’t get too much out of it. Later, however, I listened to it again with the rest of the family—and that’s when I realized the brilliance of the story! This is a series that is best enjoyed with others, in my opinion (although, in saying that, I believe the 7-10 year old age range would love reading this book to themselves).

Clementine is such a unique character. I love the way she looks at the world, and how she loves her family and friends—and how much she’ll do to try to help them, even when the “help” isn’t always done the right way! She reminds me a bit of Pippi show more Longstocking and Anne of Green Gables, not completely irresponsible, but sometimes finding herself ending up with unintended consequences.

A fun, short story, this is a series I’d love to add to our shelves one day, and I’m sure it will be a treasured family story long into the future! show less

As Clementine says, "Spectacularful ideas are always sproinging up in my brain." All the better for readers who like to laugh. Reminiscent of both Ramona and Junie B. Jones, Clementine is an ingenuous third-grader with a talent for trouble and a good heart. Her best friend is her neighbor Margaret, a fourth-grader who experiences both qualities firsthand. After all, plenty of kids may have had their hair chopped off by a helpful friend in an effort to get the glue out, but how many of those friends would think to improve matters by drawing hair back on the scalp, forehead, and neck with a Flaming Sunset permanent marker? "It looked beautiful, like a giant tattoo of tangled worms," Clementine observes in the fresh, funny, first-person show more narrative. show less

I am a fan of books about real little girls who are not obsessed with being princesses, but are more down and dirty people who refuse to conform. And in Clementine, I found exactly that.

Clementine is an eight-year-old who struggles to pay attention at school and continually finds herself in the principal's office for some infraction. At the start of the book, Clementine finds her best friend and neighbor Margaret crying in the bathroom because she got glue in her hair and cut it out. Clementine offers to balance the haircut but it doesn't look right, so Margaret decides she should just cut all of it off. And Clementine does. "Which is not exactly easy with those plastic art scissors, let me tell you." And that is just the beginning of show more Clementine's week.

The writing is very funny and would be perfect to read aloud to a class of first or second graders. I think they would all find a piece of themselves in Clementine. The illustrations contribute so much to the book as well. Often things that are just mentioned in passing are captured in the pictures, make the book that much deeper. And we all know how important scattered pictures in a chapter book are. These illustrations will invite young readers in and the writing will keep them there.

Clementine is a small sweet treat of a book. And just like her namesake she lingers enjoyably on your palate as well. I only hope that we see more of her in the future. show less

I read this early reader book all in one evening and it was, in a word, adorable. Clementine, the title character, will have anyone who remembers childhood – or who has tried to live with an eight-year-old child – cracking up. Her troubles are amusing, but the first person narrative here is the true source of greatness; Sara Pennypacker has the gift of channeling exactly the manner of thought and speech that a third grader (at least the third grader I remember being) expresses, which is a rare gift indeed, and so the asides, the perfectly logical conclusions, and the leaps from one thought to another are both familiar and deeply funny.

I have assigned this book to my Children’s Literature class and, frankly, I am eagerly looking show more forward to our discussion of it. In neither purifying nor condescending to her subject, Sara Pennypacker has written one of the best early reader books I’ve ever enjoyed. show less

Clementine is entirely delightful. I love a smart, curious, trouble-making girl with a sweet heart and love in her family. Clementine is full of ideas and shenanigans.The illustrations are sweet. I picked this book up to browse at the library and laughed enough in the first chapters to bring it home to finish. It is tricky to write a funny kid book where the kid does not turn into a little jerkface, but Clementine has plenty of heart and honesty, even if she did cut off all her best friend's hair.

Clementine. By Sara Pennypacker. With pictures by Marla Frazee. Hyperion Books for Children. 2006. 136 pages. $14.99 hbk. 0786838825. Grades 2-5.

Clementine is having a tough week: the haircut she gives her friend Margaret is not well-received, she has managed to land herself in the principal’s office twice, and to top it all off, it sounds like her parents are thinking of getting rid of her… But her amusing predicaments and misunderstandings are all punctuated by Clementine’s well-intentioned earnestness (ushering the work into a long and proud tradition of girls who always seem to be getting into scrapes despite their best efforts). Clementine is an immensely likable protagonist, full of youthful curiosity and an authentically show more child-like perspective. Little vignettes of her week nonetheless offer a clear story arc, making the work an excellent transitional chapter books for young readers. Frazee’s highly emotive black and white line drawings, interspersed throughout the work, help visualize the text and enhance the story (there is much giggling to be had at the drawings of Clementine and Margaret’s DIY haircuts!). Pennypacker creates an endearing, insular world: each character is delicately humanized through Clementine’s point of view by her deft writing. More than suitable for individual reading, Clementine would also make a delightful read-aloud to an older elementary crowd, as its humor will be heightened by the shared experience. Highly recommended. show less

8-year-old Clementine just wishes everyone would understand that she’s just trying to help. When she helps cut off her friend Margaret’s hair, it’s only because Margaret cut it first, and she’s trying to help. Likewise, when Clementine draws hair on Margaret with her mother’s markers, she’s still just trying to help. Plus, everyone keeps telling her to pay attention, and Clementine is clearly paying attention to the fact the lunch lady is kissing the janitor in her car, but it seems as though no one else is paying attention.

Readers will be easily delighted by the mischievous adventures of Clementine. Despite her antics, however, Clementine clearly is not a troublemaker for the sake of being a troublemaker; for instance, in show more order to make up for her transgressions against Margaret, she crafts Margaret a hat with all of her favorite things glued onto it. Her insistence on calling her little brother a vegetable name (she’s named after a fruit after all), and naming her cat Polka Dottie’s kittens after things she finds in the bathroom (Margaret’s cat, who’s Polka Dottie’s kitten, is named Mascara) are all charming little details that make Clementine downright endearing. The black and white drawings that are interspersed throughout the book showcase Clementine’s zany expressions, and also allow for readers to not be so intimidated by the book’s size. Clementine is a spirited girl, but she’s also charming, and readers will find themselves wishing they had a friend like Clementine. Highly recommended. Grades 1-4. show less