9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The show must go on, April 13, 2007
This review is from: The Talented Clementine (Hardcover)
When
Clementine arrived on the scene in 2006 it hit a nerve. Otherwise sane and rational adults began thwapping one another over the heads with the book screaming, "READ THIS! READ THIS! READ THIS!" Children were left abandoned as their parental units devoured the title. Kids, as it happened, quite enjoyed the book as well, but you could be forgiven for not noticing this through the swarm of "Clementine"-addled adults out there. Now the sequel has popped onto shelves everywhere and we are experiencing the calm before the storm. Copies are already flying off the shelves, but we won't experience the true gale-force winds of the faithful until the summer months. Then watch those copies simply fly. Sequels come with their own set of rules and regulations, of course. Rule #1 tends to be, "Be As Interesting As Your Predecessor," and is too often ignored by writers. NotPennypacker . A worthy sequel and a perfectly packaged little gem, "The Talented Clementine," will please the initiated and uninitiated Clementine-fans alike.
It's talent show time! Yes, the third and fourth graders of Clementine's school are gonna put on a production to beat the band and this puts our heroine in a bit of a pickle. Clementine has no talents. None.Zippo o' talentos . Well, none that she can perform anyway. She cannot dance or sing or cartwheel or Hula-Hoop. Her best friend Margaret can do all of these and more but even with her "help" Clementine's having some difficulty. And really, itisn 't until the day in question that she discovers something she can do that no other third grader seems capable of. Something that isn't flashy or even noticeable, but that quite positively saves the day.
The funny thing about this particular volume is that Pennnypacker has done away with a subplot. There's no A story paired with a lesser B story for kicks. This pup's A and only A from start to finish. You might think that would make the book tedious and slow, but the author appears to know what she's doing. The concept of figuring out what you do best is infinitely difficult to write about for any extended length of time without sounding like a broken record. All the more reason then for the author to add in details like Clementine super-gluing beerbottlecaps to the soles of her shoes in the hopes learning to tap. I can probably say with certainty that I've never read a children's early chapter book that contained a kid who stinks like a brewery. Other unique details include the presence of adults thataren 't villains. The Principal that Clementine is constantly excusing herself to talk to acts more like an infinitely patient psychotherapist than an authority figure.
I'd like to point out that what I'm doing right now (reviewing this book) is a dangerous thing. You have no idea the position I've placed myself in, do you? How easy it is, when reviewing a Clementine, to suddenly lapse into copying down quote after quote from the text without giving it a second thought. I might try to encourage you to read the book by typing something like, "And that's when the worried feeling - as if somebody were scribbling with a big black crayon - started up in my brains." That might work. Or I could slip in a little description of the school nurse that says, "She always looks bored, as if she's just killing time until a really good disease hits the school." I think you should count your lucky stars that I've too strong a sense of self-preservation to ever fall into that trap. Whew!
You know, if we're going to be perfectly honest with one another here, you should probably know that some people do not care for "Clementine". Such people have grown tired of the spunky-red-haired-female genre and equate Clem with
Junie B. Jones and her pseudo-spunky ilk. Such people, nine times out of ten, have not physically sat down and read the book cover to cover, but some have and Clementine is just not their bag. I've also heard objections to Clementine's maturity or lack thereof. Some people didn't believe (as seen in the first book) that a third grader would be so immature as to cut off all of her best friend's hair. But even if that's your objection to "Clementine", there's nothing to stop you from loving its follow-up. Maturity varies with every individual. And if there's any way to describe this heroine, it's as an "individual" indeed.
So why do people like Pennypacker's books so much? Maybe it's because she's damn good at nailing little truths here and there. We know what it's like when a teacher is so excited by a program that they end up tacking on words to the Pledge of Allegiance like, "With liberty and justice for all and I know we're all very excited to get to our big project." Her characters feel believable. Clementine is self-involved, sure. What third graderisn 't? But she honestly feels a concern for her annoying baby brother. In fact, she's so afraid that the babysitter will forget that he's allergic to peanuts that she scrawls a, "NO PEANUTS FOR ME!" in blue permanent marker on his head so as to avoid any accidents.
One of the branches in my library system is mere days away from hosting an honest-to-goodness "Clementine" party. There will be a pin-the-bologna-glasses-on-the-face, a pigeon toss, and who knows what all. I was hoping there might be a wok spin, but no such luck. Now after having read the sequel, I wonder what additional crafts and ideas might come of this newest title. A howling contest? A bottle cap coloring station? The mind boggles. Whatever they decide upon, I know that they'll need plenty of copies of this book when it finally reaches their shelves. Once again, the Clementine-shaped ball that is this book gets knocked cleanly out of the park. A worthy continuation.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great sequel!, May 12, 2007
This review is from: The Talented Clementine (Hardcover)
If your child read Clementine, then he or she will love Talented Clementine. Sara Pennypacker continues Clementine's adventure in her school's talent show. My 7 year old couldn't believe there was another book on Clementine. He and his reading group read the first one and loved it...boys and girls alike....they both could relate to the characters as well as the writing style. The only disappointment that my son showed when he finished reading Talented Clementine was he still did not know Clementine's brother's name. Sara Pennypacker is keeping that a secret for now. Guess she'll eventually let the readers know what the brother's name is. For now, the readers will just have to call him what his sister Clementine calls him: Broccoli, Spinach, etc.... Buy the book for your child...they will thank you!
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Anna`s Review, Age 8, February 24, 2010
This review is from: The Talented Clementine (Hardcover)
The story is a comedy. It takes place in a big city. The main character is Clementine. She is an eight-year-old girl. She lives in an apartment building where her father is a building manager. The problem is that Clementine doesn't have a talent to perform at the talent show. On the day of the talent show she goes to the school talent palooza without a talent. Five minutes before the show starts she asks the principal, Ms. Rice, to use the phone to call her parents to not come to the talent show because she didn't have a talent. But it was too late. A surprise was waiting for her! After the talent show, her parents brought her to an expensive restaurant without her brother.
My favorite part was when she got the surprise at the theater because it was an excellent surprise. I read all of the Clementine books, and this one I like the most. You should read the book because it's a very exciting book!!!
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