Clarice Bean, That's Me - Hardcover

Child, Lauren

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1841210293 ISBN 13: 9781841210292

Publisher: Orchard Books, 1999

Synopsis

Clarice Bean has to share her room with her younger brother, has an older brother who is in the tunnel of adolescence, a grandad who pours soup on his cornflakes and a boy next door who copies her. All she wants is peace and quiet.

About this title

Review:

Poor Clarice Bean, sharing her bedroom with her irritating brother Minal Cricket, coping with his tendency towards hanging upside down until he turns purple, and having to squish all her worldly goods into the tiniest of spaces. It just doesn't seem fair, especially as her boy-obsessed, lipstick wearing sister has a room all to herself, as does her older brother Kurt--a non-communicative teenager "in the dark tunnel of adolescence".

And its all right for her parents: dad escapes the chaos of the family home by going to his office, granddad spends most of his time "having peace and quiet" in his comfy chair, and mum disappears into the bathroom with a truck load of lotions and potions when it all gets too much for her.

But Clarice, despite all her efforts, can't find her own peace anywhere until one day she throws her brother's duvet out of the window and then "accidentally on purpose" tips a bowl of spaghetti hoops over his head. Then she is in Big Trouble, and she is sent to her room for 3 whole hours. And it's best piece of peace and quiet she has had in ages.

Clarice Bean, That's Me is an outstanding, clever and absolutely hilarious scrap-book style picture book that charts the chaotic lifestyle of its heroine with outrageously quirky illustrations and a cut-to-the-chase writing style that is both imaginative and refreshingly irreverent.

Lauren Child's Smarties Prize shortlisted title will have children and adults alike returning time and time again to the Bean household to bask in the heartwarming glow of an intelligent, funny and honest take on family life, delivered with an enviable wit that is set to make young Clarice something of a superstar. (Ages 6 to 8) --Susan Harrison

Review:

Wonderful to read aloud. (Sunday Express (Cressida Cowell))

It'll make you roar with laughter (Sunday Times)

Laugh-out-loud funny gloss on family life (The Bookseller)

Child's spot-on portrait of family life...has an anthropological quality reminiscent of Posy Simmonds' Weber family...exuberantly inventive (Books for Keeps)

For a humorous and refreshingly honest look at family life, you can't get any better than this (The Bookseller)

Brilliantly written and drawn by Lauren Child, the cringe-worthy details are a joy (The Guardian)

A real treat. This is only Lauren Child's second book for children and I'm totally hooked (The Independent)

Text and illustrations are united in giving this wittily ironic, child's-eye view of familiar characters and their foibles (The Guardian)

Represents the arrival of a sparkling and irresistable new talent (Literacy and Learning)

A modern classic (Sainsburys Magazine)

About this edition

• Publisher: Orchard Books
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1841210293
• ISBN 13: 9781841210292
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32