Review #50: Clementine by Sara Pennypacker

Title: Pennypacker, Sara. Clementine. Hyperion Paperbacks. 2006. 133 pages. Paperback $10.91. ISBN 978-0-329-64563-2

Genre: Fiction
Reading Level/Interest Level: 4.2/ Grades 3-6
Awards: None
Series: Clementine
Similar Titles: Junie B Jones series by Patricia Page, Amber Brown series by Paula Danzinger, Ramona Quimby series by Beverly Cleary

I love Clementine! I am beyond overjoyed that I found this book during all these book reviews.I only wish it had been written when I was a child!

Clementine is eccentric and original. There is no one like her. If there was an advanced class for art, she says, she'd be in it, and the proof is drawn throughout the book as she tries to illustrate her visions. She is fidgety, whacky, unique, and her mind moves a million miles a minute. She is just...like...me...and I guess, since my little one is a carbon copy of me, she is just like Clementine too!!! I can't wait for her to read all about Clementine! I think she will find a real kinship.

Clementine gets into trouble for not paying attention, when really the problem is that she is paying attention too much, to everything around her, just not necessarily what the adult wants. Her mind moves so fast that while the adult is still on page 1, question 1, Clementine's mind has made enough connection to push her to page 50, question 4. She thinks outside the box. She has a heart of gold, even if what she does to make a situation right, gets her into hot water, not unlike a little girl version of Curious George.

She is devoted to her friends and tries so hard to be brave, in spite of hurt feelings and being blamed for everything, "like a common criminal." Her family is not picture perfect, but they are real, loving, supportive and understanding. They "get" her, even if no one else does, and they try so hard to see the world from her eyes, which is easier, since they aren't magazine perfect either.

When eight year old Clementine finds her friend, Margaret, crying in the bathroom after cutting off a chunk of her long hair, Clementine tries to make it better. Together  they end up cutting off all of Margaret's hair, much to the terror of the teachers, principal, and Margaret's mother. Clementine tries to make it right, knowing how much Margaret has always wished their hair was the same. So she draws curls and colors Margaret's remaining hair with a permanent marker, matching her own shade. Margaret's mother is furious. Clementine doesn't want Margaret to feel bad at school, so she cuts off her own hair and then lets Margaret color her head....an astonishing shade of green. But that's not the end of her troubles or her accomplishments, after she decides that her parents are trying to get rid of her, the "hard child," so that they can keep just one "easy child," all because she is convinced that Margaret's mother has told them about the hard/easy child rule. But not to worry! The end will work itself out and Clementine will realize just how lucky she is to not be "magazine perfect" but to just be Clementine, in Clementine's family.

Whether she is getting in trouble for not paying attention, not sitting still or is off with her father fighting the "Great Pigeon War," Clementine is constantly finding ways to look at the world that few others understand. She has such a clear, constantly thinking and innocent view of the world  that it warms the readers heart, especially those of us who completely understand her method of thinking.
That could be the artist in us, the artist in Clementine, but then again, one day, she might just grow up to be a detective too.