Clementine and the Spring Trip

Sara Pennypacker's Clementine and the Spring Trip is a funny school story for 6 year olds about one very busy week in spring.

What happens

Clementine lives in Boston and she's in third grade. The warm weather has arrived and everyone's going a little bit crazy. Her friend Margaret is scrubbing the brass ducklings in the park. Her dad is decorating the lobby of their building with plastic pecans. And the apple seed Clementine planted last autumn has finally sprouted!

The big event is Thursday, when the school's off to Plimoth Plantation. Third and fourth graders will eat lunch together, and Margaret (a fourth grader) keeps warning her about the rule. No sounds while you eat. No crunching, no slurping, no glugging and definitely no snicking. What's snicking? You'll find out.

There's also a new girl called Olive, who's made up her own secret way of talking and has the whole class hanging on her every word. And a school bus that smells so bad the kids have given it a name.

Clementine tells the whole thing herself and she's brilliant company. Her head is so full of ideas that they come out sideways. She calls her little brother a different vegetable every time (Mung Bean, Snap Pea, Kohlrabi). She's always "N-O-T, not" kidding. And she's certain she's paying attention when every grown-up is certain she isn't.

There are some lovely quiet moments too. Her mum's expecting a baby and Clementine can't decide if she wants a brother or a sister. She and her dad are secretly building a five-sided table in the basement for the new family, and she's the one who works out the angles.

Has your reader ever worried about a rule somebody else made up? Or felt a bit put out when a new kid got all the attention? They'll recognise a lot of this.

What to read next

It's set in an American school (third grade, Pilgrims) but it's very easy to follow. If this is the first time they've met her, the book simply called Clementine is in the library too, where a haircut goes badly wrong for Margaret and Clementine only tries to help.