Clementine and the Spring Trip
Series: Clementine, Book 6
By: Sara Pennypacker / Narrated By: Jessica Almasy
Length: 1 hr and 50 mins
Yes, kinda pricey for such a little book—but your kids (And you!) will love it!
I KNOW: Not even 2 hours long and there are several Clementine audiobooks out there. They shooould be cheaper, and some kinda sorta are, but really. You could spend oodles of bucks on this series of audiobooks.
That said, if you’ve a hankering for a good story for your kids, and you listen in yourself, you really can’t go wrong. Of course, this is my first Clementine book, and I TOTally got it just cuz it said Spring, so I s’pose I can’t vouch for the series. But if Clementine and the Spring Trip is any indication? Sara Pennypacker (She who wrote Pax—which I’ve GOT to review!) has written yet another quality story with a heroine who is flawed yet oh so brave. Plus, the adults aren’t portrayed as bumbling idiots (Most of them, at any rate) but are instead wonderful role models. Who knew you could be a guiding light to your kids? Quite a concept there!
Spring is kinda sorta Clementine’s thing. Her apple tree is growing, much to her delight. Her friend Margaret’s Inner Maid comes to the fore for Spring cleaning. And at her school there are day trips aplenty to be had. This year, the class is going to Plimoth Plantation to see what all it was like for Pilgrims way back ages ago. That’s okay, but there are a couple of problems: First, Clementine must survive Bus 7 (Which stinks to high heaven, and all the kids have ideas of just WHAT it stinks like). Second, she’s separated from Margaret and is instead paired with the new girl, Olive. Which drives her nuts because Olive speaks in a special Olive-language, and all the kids think it’s fanTAStic, much to Clementine’s disgust.
Soooo, here we have a book about a middle-schooler who has to deal with fear of fitting in, even as she desperately tries to ostracize the heck outta the new girl. But Clementine has some pretty awesome parents, so maybe she might just realize a thing or two about acceptance, and rejoicing in differences.
And maaaaybe, once she sees that her chicken sandwich comes from truly adorable little birds, she might just find something to be “crunchy” about. Crunchy is how her mom gets when there’s ANY form of injustice. Crunchy is something Clementine has never been.
Crunchy is how Clementine might just be, however, when it all comes down to the nitty gritty.
Another reviewer really had problems with Jessica Almasy’s narration, said it went way too fast. Oh I dunno. As someone who usually has to jack the listening speed up to at leeeeast x1.25, more likely x1.5, it was rather refreshing to be able to listen at x1 speed. Does that mean it’ll be too fast for the ears of those who don’t have significant issues with delaying gratification (Seriously, I have to know what’s happening, like, NOW)? Uhm, well, maybe. But I think you’ll find it jim dandy fine, as little kids kinda squawk and burble and chatter their thoughts out like a volcano spews ash.
So listen in as we watch a young girl evolve from a worried-she-won’t-be-accepted person to perhaps someone who strongly believes in issues, enough to speak out, loudly, profoundly.
Clementine will NOT be silenced. And she might even relax about Olive-language.
Who knows? :)
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