Clementine

Book: Clementine
Author: Sara Pennypacker
Audience: Grades 2-4
In a Nutshell: haircuts, ceiling snakes, and a war against the pigeons

Third grader Clementine is always paying attention, but not to what her teachers expect. She means well and tries to help, but always seems to end up getting in trouble, like when she helped her friend Margaret cut her gluey hair off and colored on some new hair with her artist mother's permanent markers. She is very familiar with the principal's office- so much so that she answers the phone- and she's a little worried that there are ceiling snakes because of how often Mrs. Rice looks up at the ceiling when Clementine is in there. She calls her toddler brother a variety of vegetable names because it's not fair that she got stuck with a fruit name and he didn't (we never do learn his real name). She helps her dad, the apartment building manager, in his daily war against the pigeons, and that may be what keeps her week from being really crummy.

Very funny, sweet, and spunky. Good for the Ramona or Junie B. crowd.

Good reading by Jessica Almasy.