The Talented Clementine
Author: Sara Pennypacker
Illustrator: Marla Frazee
Book 2 in the Clementine series
Pages: 144
Published: 2007
Age: 7+
Winner or washout?
When it comes to tackling third grade, Clementine is at the top of her game-okay, so maybe not all the time. After her teacher announces that the third and fourth graders will be putting on a talent show, Clementine panics. She doesn't sing or dance or play an instrument. She can't evenhop with finesse. And as if she didn't feel bad enough, her perfect best friend, Margaret, has so many talents, she has to alphebetise them to keep them straight
As the night of the big "Talent-palooza" draws closer, Clementine is desperate for an act—any act. But the unexpected talent she demonstrates at the show surprises everyone . . . most of all herself.
About the Clementine Series
Books in series order
- 1.Clementine(2006)
- 2.The Talented Clementine(2007)
- 3.Clementine's Letter(2007)
- 4.Clementine, Friend of the Week(2010)
- 5.Clementine and the Family Meeting(2011)
- 6.Clementine and the Spring Trip(2013)
- 7.Completely Clementine(2015)
- +Clementine: All About You Journal(2012)
Reading age: 7+ years
This series should be read in order.
Eight years old, artistic and impulsive, Clementine has flaming red curls and an unintentionally devious streak. In spite of her good but misunderstood intentions, she gets into all sorts of trouble at school and frequently finds herself being sent to the principal's office for her misadventures.
Spectacularful ideas are always springing up in Clementine’s brain. She wants to be an artist, is excellent at noticing things and is saving up to buy a gorilla. She is kind to the point of chopping off all her own curly red hair in an effort to make her best friend Margaret feel better after a glue accident in art class! She calls her three-year-old brother by a variety of vegetable names including Cabbage, Broccoli, and Radish, and she is acutely aware that, in her family, she would not be considered “the easy one.”
Clementine’s stories are roll-on-the-floor hilarious, and Marla Frazee’s black ink drawings perfectly capture Clementine’s cheerful personality. These sweet and funny chapters books will appeal to readers who like the Junie B. Jones, Alice-Miranda and Judy Moody series as well as the Flat Stanley's Worldwide Adventures books, also written by Sara Pennypacker.