Clementine and the Family Meeting
Author: Sara Pennypacker
Illustrator: Marla Frazee
Book 5 in the Clementine series
Pages: 176
Published: 2011
Age: 7+
Clementine's having a nervous breakdown. The FAMILY MEETING! sign is up in her house, and she just knows she's in trouble for something. Has she been too mean to her little brother? Too sloppy? Eating too much junk food? Try as she might to find out what's on the agenda, her parents won't reveal anything before the meeting.
As far as Clementine is concerned, the agenda should be something like: "We're getting a gorilla." But no, it's something entirely different. "We're talking about a new baby," says her father. "A brother or sister for you two. What do you think about that?"
NO THANKS! is what Clementine thinks. After all, four is the perfect number for a family. There are four sides to a table—not five. Will Clementine learn to make room for one more?
Readers will chuckle at Clementine's unique perspective on the age-old issue of sibling rivalry.
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.