[.ca] Utterly Me, Clarice Bean (ISBN 1843626810)

From Amazon.co.uk:
Utterly Me, Clarice Bean is Lauren Child's rather marvellous follow up to the super-savvy picture books that first launched the unforgettable Clarice into Smarties Prize and Kate Greenaway Medal winning orbit. This time, Child has moved away from her usual format and strikes gold in a novel for younger folk. Clarice's extraordinarily ordinary family are under pressure. Dad keeps muttering about how "there might be a reshuffle going on at work" and how he will "have to jump through hoops" if he wants to get a "share of the pie" because "the big cheese" has been making noises about "some people being left out in the cold if they don't keep their eye on the ball", while mum spends her life "gribbling about pants on the floor and shoes on the sofa". And as for her brother, Minal Cricket, he "tends to be utterly a nuisance". Meanwhile, Mrs Wilburton, the school teacher who insists that Clarice sets a book project "which sounds utterly dreary", until, that is, Miss Bean realises there is a prize. Together with best friend Betty Moody, Clarice sets about bagging the booty with the aid of The Ruby Redford Collection, a series of books about an 11-year-old detective. As the games commence, Clarice tells her story through her diary, navigating childhood minefields and inviting readers to join her in her wide-eyed wonder at the madness of it all. Children will enjoy the easy-flowing, slightly breathless style and the familiarity of day-to-day dramas, and will undoubtedly agree with many of Clarice's observations on the utter unfairness of childhood in general. Black and white drawings and random meanderings into alternative type faces that perfectly ape the bored scribblings of many a child add a visual dimension that will appeal even to less able or reluctant readers as well as to those who enjoy a good read. And let us not forget that Utterly Me, Clarice Bean is just about perfect for reading aloud--in fact, this option is highly recommended as depriving the grown-ups of this laugh-out-loud experience would be utterly, utterly unfair. Ages six and over. --Susan Harrison

Utterly Love It:
This is a brilliant book for young girls, and grown ups who love kids. Lauren Child has bravely and successfully taken Clarice from picture books to a chapter book (with a few pictures), allowing her to grow up with her fans while keeping her quirky avant garde style. The typefaces still change with the voices, the words still make occasional spirals and shapes to add emphasis, and Clarice sustains her charming and precisely realistic stream of pre-teen consciousness as narrator. There is lots of plot. Clarice wants to win the class prize for best book review, despite the low expectations of her teacher. But what book will she review? Dare she choose the low-brow story she is obsessively reading, the latest in the series about 'Ruby Redfort, girl detective'? The book Clarice can't put down is not only the book within this book, it inspires Ruby to solve a minor mystery of her own. Ruby Redfort is a gentle tribute to escapist fiction from Harry Potter down, as Clarice's climactic speech to her classmate makes clear. Meanwhile, the Bean family are in full effect in the background, providing plenty of humor and sub-plots. Grown ups will notice the depth of this book - the shrewdly observed reality of Clarice's life, the pathos of her victimized school mates, the mild mascochism of her teacher and the telling points about the importance of reading and encouraging children to read. Utterly wonderful.

Utterly Cute:
This story, written in a child like journal style, takes the reader through the adventures and emotions of Clarice Bean. Clarice is enthralled by a book series about a yound girl detective. As she encounters the turmoils of adolescence, family, and peers, she relies on her storybook character to guide her through the situations. The story was definitely a 3-5 grade selection. I had to keep reminding myself of the intended grade level as I wanted the character to be more complex and have a deeper storyline. For an adult, reading a children's chapter book, the story was short of being so good that I got lost in the characters. However, the book was not intended to hold my interest, but the interest of an elementary student, which I think the story will do brilliantly. The characters and the story sound like students everywhere and I am sure that young girls will be able to connect with Clarice Bean and enjoy reading about her adventures.

This book is so funny!:
This book is about a girl named Clarice, Clarice Bean. It all takes place at Clarice's school. (Well most of the time.) At her school a lot of crazy, funny stuff happens. What happens in this book is the whole school is having a science experiment and the teacher shows everybody the trophy that they could win if their experiment is the winning one. But the next day the trophy was gone! Everybody thought it was Clarice. Clarice was tired of being blamed, so she decided she was going to figure this out! She felt like her favorite book character. Will she figure out who did it, and win the science project? Read the book and find out. This book is so funny. Like when Clarice writes a letter to Santa, she wrote: "Dear Santa, if you even exist, can you buy me a flashlight? And if you don't, then can someone else please get me one?" And there's a lot more! I think it's a great book. I like this book a lot. Really I only liked adventure books but then when I read this book I started to like all sorts of books! I really like it and I hope you will to! I recommend this book to people ages 7-12. AND AFTER YOU READ THIS BOOK, THERE'S ANOTHER ONE TO GO!

Purely fun entertainment!:
Sassy British girl Clarice Bean loves the Ruby Redfort mystery series. She tells us about the mysteries in her own life: What is Grandpa hiding? Where has her best friend, Betty Moody, gone? Why is her normally smelly and unfriendly brother out of his room and smelling like soap? One by one, Clarice tries to solve these puzzles. Clarice's teacher assigns the class a book project, and there will be a prize for the best one. With Betty Moody gone, Clarice must work with Karl, the class problem boy, and is not happy about this turn of events. But she is amazed to discover that Karl is actually nice; he's fun to work with and makes Clarice laugh. Karl believes he can invent gadgets, such as detective walkie-talkies, to impress their teacher. To win the competition, though, they need to prove that Clarice has learned something important from her Ruby Redfort books. Clarice is delighted when Betty Moody returns. But Betty is so jealous of Clarice's new friendship with Karl that the girls quarrel. Karl is disqualified for stealing the prize. Clarice knows that proving his innocence would also prove that she has learned to solve mysteries like Ruby Redfort. That would show that she has learned something important from the books. Can she do it? Clarice knows Karl didn't steal the prize, but who did? Will Betty help Clarice clear Karl's name? You'll find many surprises as you turn the pages. Clarice's story is threaded through with adventures from the Ruby Redfort books. It has lots of illustrations; the pictures are wacky and wonderful, while the letters of the text sometimes swoop or swirl or become larger or smaller. Will you learn something important from this book? Will your heartstrings be tugged? Maybe not, but you'll probably laugh out loud while reading about Clarice's shenanigans. If you're in the mood for purely fun entertainment, I utterly recommend UTTERLY ME, CLARICE BEAN. --- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon (terryms2001@yahoo.com)

A schoolgirl detective determined to solve mysteries:
It's not easy to concentrate at school when mysteries are happening, especially if you're a schoolgirl detective determined to solve these mysteries. In Utterly Me, Clarice Bean, Clarice's diary charts her troubles between detective work and school work in this hilarious story, packed with simple but zany cartoon drawings throughout.