Book Review: Utterly Me, Clarice Bean by Lauren Child

Utterly Me, Clarice Bean is the 4th book in my set reading for the MA, and it was such a joy! Really, I've enjoyed everything I've read so far (Charlotte's Web, Where the Wild Things Are, Skellig). But I chose to specifically write about the Clarice Bean series (aka the British equivalent of Junie B. Jones) because, as I was reading and presenting on it, I realized how beneficial of a book this would be for children with disabilities that make reading challenging and therefore just don't read.

Clarice Bean is an average girl with one too many siblings and who has a deep love of the Ruby Redfort mystery books. She wishes she had an exciting life like Ruby's spy life, but instead she must deal with a sneaky grandpa, coats being rearranged at school, her siblings, and her best friend Betty Moody.
Clarice is actually quite excited for a school project when the class is assigned to pick their own book to do a book report table on. They must have a display and show what they have learned from the books. The winners will get a secret prize and their names on a gold trophy. Naturally Clarice and Betty choose the Ruby Redfort book to do their report on. But then several mysteries throw their way into Clarice's way to victory.
First of all, there's a mysterious barking coming from her grandpa's room. Then Betty goes missing. And THEN the golden cup that the winners are supposed to get their names on goes missing! It's all just going to the dogs. And Clarice is left on her own to solve all these mysteries, discover what she's learned from the Ruby Redfort books, and deal with everyday problems.

Clarice Bean's voice is established immediately, and this little girl is hilarious and sassy. I love her. I actually wrote "lol" on nearly every page. But Lauren Child is very witty in the way she sets this book up, which I think is just perfect for children with attention struggles. She plays with the size of text to pull kids' attention back in and forms some of the story's words into shapes. She also has installments of the Ruby Redfort books sprinkled throughout Clarice's own story, so it's almost like breaking up the book, keeping it fresh, and holding your child's attention.
Anyone will enjoy this book because the writing is charming and Clarice Bean is hilarious. But if you have a/know of a child who doesn't like reading just because books can't keep their attention, hand them this Utterly Me, Clarice Bean. They might just get sucked in.

**Plus, this book promotes kids reading what they enjoy, rather than what they are required to read, and I think that's incredibly important. Clarice shows that she's able to learn something from a popular fiction book. So all the power! But I'm off my soapbox now.

Happy Reading,
         HER 

Review: The Tail of Emily Windsnap by Liz Kessler

I started reading the Emily Windsnap series when I was about 10 years old, right when they came into publication. And they were my absolute favorites! So much my favorites that I wrote a letter to the British author, Liz Kessler, a couple years later about how much I loved her books and how I was a writer too and wrote all the time and wanted to be published.
Well, to my 12 year old astonishment, I received a letter back from this amazing author encouraging me to keep writing. I've saved that letter for 10 years now, displaying it proudly on my wall. Never did I think I'd get to the day when I would meet Liz and be able to show her the letter that she sent me all those years ago.
Well, that day did come this past weekend. I finally got to meet Liz at the Bath Children's Literature Festival, listen to her speak, and finally show her the letter she sent me. She was so touched that she nearly cried, came all the way around the table to hug me and take a picture with ME on HER phone, which never happens. I'm so blessed that I was able to share with her how much her letter touched my courage and influenced my writing career. It is one of the highlights of my life, thus far.

But this is a book review. Since my MA Writing for Young People at Bath Spa University starts tomorrow, I thought I'd reread the first The Tail of Emily Windsnap to prepare and also just to reread. Cause why not? I wanted to look at it with the critical eye of an adult and a writing student. I was just as extraordinarily pleased with it as I was when I was a child.
The book instantly hooks readers and really pulls us into the story by having Emily, the first person narrator, address the audience by sharing a secret with us. And we, of course, are the only ones to know. But she doesn't just come right out and say what her secret is; she reveals the secret through scene--the secret that she's a mermaid! But how is this possible? Her mother's afraid of water, and she's never known anything about her dad.
It's not until she meets her first real life mermaid, her new bff Shona, that answers start to fall into place. After a day at mermaid school with Shona, Emily discovers who her father might be--a siren who broke the rules and fell in love with a human. But what's happened to him? Where is he? And how does she get to him?
With the help of her new fin and her loyal, brave best friend, Emily is determined to find the truth and bring her family back together.

Kessler's writing is simple yet beautiful. The dialogue is fast paced and skips through unnecessary bits of the story, that might be important to an older mind but a younger mind would just blitz over anyway. But my favorite part of Kessler's writing is her use of verbs. She utilizes the absolute perfect, imagery-inducing verbs, and I LOVE it. I'm quite jealous in fact. I enjoyed the charming details to create a mermaid culture like siren classes and the word "swishy," which just really makes the book come to life. I might even start using "swishy" again to describe the coolest of cool things.

But as I was reading this, I was trying to remember why I was so in love with it as a kid. I was never really taken to the beach yearly, and I'd never had an obsession with mermaids, even though I did love Ariel. Reading it now, I remember. A--I felt a slight connection to Emily, feeling outside of her school, not really having a place among friends, but just needing one good friend. And B--we'd just moved into a house with a pool, and literally the only thing I wanted to do was play mermaids. I was a mermaid literally every day of the summer. And that was my a-ha moment. Thanks to my pool, Emily Windsnap and I became bffs.

After listening to Liz speak at the Bath Children's Literature festival, I loved hearing her take on how stories come to her. First of all, she advised all young writers to carry a notebook with them everywhere, which I 100% support. Second of all, she said that she doesn't make up characters or put pieces of people together. For her, the story already exists and choose the writers. And again, I have to whole-heartedly agree with this.
I've never had to sit down and think through Cheyenne's character or her story. It's always just come to me, and I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only author who thinks this way.

Apart from this being a review, this is also an encouragement to young readers/writers--write authors! We may not always respond, though some still do (obviously). But we can't tell you how much it touches our hearts that the stories we manage to pen make a difference in our readers' lives the way that Liz Kessler made a difference in mine.

So go read Emily Windsnap! She's on her 9th journey (and still going).

Happy Reading,
      HER