The Talented Clementine

Sara Pennypacker's The Talented Clementine is a funny school story for 6 year olds about a girl who's convinced she's the only kid in school without a single talent.

What happens

Clementine is eight and in third grade. Her class is holding a talent show to raise money for the spring trip. Everyone's hand shoots up with an act. Except hers.

The worry starts "as if somebody were scribbling with a big black crayon" in her brain. So she takes herself off to the headteacher's office before she's even in trouble (it's just a matter of time, she says).

What follows is a week of brilliant bad plans. She tells her teacher her dad might be moving the family to Egypt to manage the pyramids. She tries juggling a handbag, a coffee cup, the phone and her kitten. It doesn't end well for the rug.

Then there's tap dancing. Her feet are too big for Margaret's old tap shoes, so she glues twenty-four bottle caps onto her trainers. They came off the bottles in the basement where the grown-ups keep their beer. You can imagine how she smells afterwards!

Clementine tells the story herself and she's just so funny. Teachers get "exciting" mixed up with "boring". She calls her little brother a different vegetable name every time (Spinach, Cabbage, Onion...). And she notices EVERYTHING, usually at exactly the wrong moment.

Underneath it there's a real worry, though. Her dad keeps listing things she's good at and she can't see how any of them would work on a stage. It's an experience we've probably all had, feeling like everyone else has something special and you don't.

The grown-ups around her are lovely. Her dad calls her Sport and tells her she's empathetic. Even Margaret, the fourth grader in her building who thinks she's the boss of everyone, turns out to be a little bit kind.

If you've got a reader who talks a mile a minute, has LOTS of ideas and sometimes gets in trouble for all of them, they'll feel right at home here.

What to read next

For another week of Clementine and her big ideas, try the book called simply Clementine. It starts with a not so good week, Margaret, a pair of art-room scissors and some glue.