Review of CLEMENTINE

Pennypacker, Sara. Marla Frazee. (Ill.) 2006. CLEMENTINE. New York: Hyperion Books for Children. ISBN 0-7868-3882-5

In this first person account of a second grader’s life, the reader is taken on a stream-of-consciousness roller coaster ride. Sara Pennypacker strings together seemingly disconnected thoughts and, thus, creates a window into the mind of the title character, Clementine. This rambunctious, distractible, and impulsive girl is so believable, I got tired just reading about her. Clementine pays attention to the wrong things and helps by cutting her friend’s hair and drawing curls on her head with her mother’s special markers. This makes her, as her friend puts it, “the hard one.” Though believable, Clementine’s gender makes her an atypical protagonist. Most stories about difficult children are about boys rather than girls. Marla Frazee’s frequent monochromatic drawings shed additional light on Clementine’s personality. The reader sees her spiky hair after she has cut it off and her sad expression when her mother sees her. The frequency of the pictures, about every other page, also serves to aid readers in their transition to longer novels. Though the book is more than 100 pages, the regularity of the illustrations helps to break up the text and make it less intimidating for recent ‘early reader’ graduates. Though many different things happen, Pennypacker pulls them all together into a cohesive and engaging plot. Why is Clementine at the principal’s office? How will they get rid of the pigeons? What will Clementine do next? This story’s themes of childhood insecurity and unconditional parental love are universal and timeless.

This fast paced contemporary realistic fiction novel, with its comical and telling illustrations, is highly recommended for readers grades 2-5.