Sweet Clementine

Clementine, Friend of the Week
 by Sarah Pennypacker
 Hyperion Books for Children
 ISBN: 978-1-4231-1355-3
 Audience: ages 6-10 years

There are lots of books about spunky, precocious young girls for the grade 2-4 set. Lots. I have to be honest – I don’t love all of them. Some series are too repetitive. Some of the star characters are obnoxious, or even just plain bratty. My picks? On the classic-but-still-fantastic side, you can not go wrong with Ramona Quimby (start with Beezus and Ramona.) Of the current crop? The vivacious Clementine has snatched my crabby old heart in her paint-spattered hands right from the first, self-titled book in the series. .

Clementine, you see, is a girl who is filled with great intentions and big ideas, even if things do often seem to go pear-shaped along the way. This time, she’s got plans to do things for her classmates so that they will write nice comments things about her at the end of her turn as the class “friend of the week.” She doesn’t get to do what she promises, though, when her kitten disappears and  her own crisis takes over. In the end, she discovers that she has some pretty good friends in class already, and not just because of this one week of favours. Even her pain-in-the-neck neighbour turns out to be more of a friend than she thought!

Aside from the fact that these are great, age-appropriate adventures for the middle grades they are aimed at and that they are often laugh-out-loud funny? I also love that not only is Clementine quirky in a fun and large-hearted way, but that her family, a little unusual themselves, totally get her, and that even the grownups in the school try to find ways to work with her and see her strengths (she is highly creative) as well as her challenges (and a little, um, distractable). It’s all too common to find adults in kids’ books that seem like they are just there to provide opposition, and are painted in two dimensions, whereas these people are real, compassionate, and committed to trying to bring out Clementine’s best, not just squash her spirit. What a refreshing idea, to show kids that grownups are not just impediments, but can help you succeed by working together!

For all these reasons, I recommend this series as a great choice for girls reading early chapters, and while I borrow most series, I love these ones enough to be buying them.