139. Utterly Me, Clarice Bean

Utterly Me, Clarice Bean. Lauren Child. 2005. 208 pages. [Source: Library] [illustrated chapter book]

First sentence: n/a

Premise/plot: Clarice Bean HATES school and hates her teacher. (It seems mutual. The teacher is depicted as unprofessionally mean. Of course, that could be Clarice Bean's perspective.) In this series book, Clarice Bean has to team up with a classmate (or two) and do a project (oral report? class presentation?) on a book. They have to choose a book that they've learned something from. The teacher is angry (angry enough to send to the principal) that Clarice wants to choose a fiction book and a mystery at that. Clarice LOVES the Ruby Redfort mystery series. (As do a few of her friends). But can these students find a way to prove that they've "learned something" from a mystery novel?

My thoughts: My library doesn't have many in this series. And they do not have the first book. This bothers me starting books in the middle of a series. I felt Clarice Bean was stream of consciousness of an ADHD kid. The way the story unfolds is just a bit all over the place. I think one thing that made this one a little odd--and I don't know if it's just this one book in the series or the whole series--is that the NOVEL Clarice is reading--the mystery novel starring Ruby Redfort--gets almost as many pages as the actual Clarice Bean novel. I would describe the book as a little jumpy/jittery. I didn't dislike it, but I almost don't know what to do with it. I feel like to make sense of it I would almost need to read the other books to see a fuller picture of Clarice Bean's world. 

I do wish I'd written down the first sentence. I'm so used to books having previews available that I hardly write down sentences.

 

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