Byline- June 18th, 2009It will be a race between this and The Mysterious Bendedict Society and the Perilous Journey to see which will be the first sequel I review here at Anbaric Lights. I'm currently in the middle of both of them right now, but seeing as MN let me borrow this book MONTHS ago, I feel that I owe it to her to finally finish it and get it back to her.
As you may remember, I reviewed Clementine her a while back, and found that I loved it. Clementine is more than a worthy successor to Beverly Cleary's Ramona (beloved by me as a wee lad) and the book Clementine was consistently laugh out loud funny, a trait all to rare in books these days.
In The Talented Clementine, Clementine returns to confront the daunting prospect of a "Talentpalooza" talent show at her school. Not only does she not think she has any "good" talents (seeing things from fresh angles, making her brother laugh, pruning, ivy, thinking of things-lime jello- to put on toast, and being empathetic, just to name a few, don't count), but her arch nemesis and upstairs neighbor, Margaret has talents (accordion, clarinet, baton twirling, acting, horseback riding, singing, tap dancing, etc...) to spare. Margaret agrees to teach Clementine one of her many talents, and the sequence where Margaret tries to teach Clementine to tap, and the lengths Clementine goes to to create tap shoes of her own might be the funniest chapter I've ever read.
However, one of the previously listed not "good" talents ends up inspiring Clementine to create the Talentpalooza Act to end all Talentpalooza acts. To describe it in any greater detail here would be doing you, the potential reader, a great disservice, but trust me when I write that you will not want to miss what Clementine gets up to at the climax of The Talented Clementine. If you liked the first volume, then you'll love the sequel. Highly recommended.
1 comment:
I read this book! I also read the first Clementine book. They are rather funny!
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