Oh dear.  Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

I’ve been recommending Clementine by Sara Pennypacker (illustrations by Marla Frazee) to coworkers, patrons, and friends for quite a while now.  Of course, I hadn’t actually read it, but I’d read all of the reviews, listened to a third grader who loved it, and been dazzled by the cute cover.  So I chose it as the first book for my newly formed third grade book group, and sat down Friday night eager to finally read it.

But – you guessed it.  Overly cynical, highly critical Abby didn’t like the book.  Hated it, more like.  How can that be??  Here’s how: I’ve known a LOT of third graders, kids I taught at the elementary school, kids that I tutor in my off-library hours, and kids who come in to the library.  And not one of those third graders has ever been as cluelessly, annoyingly, cloyingly CUTE as Clementine.  Blech.  Ptooey.  Ptooey. Blech blech blech.  Take a little syrup, add some sugar, molasses, and saccharine, and you’ve got Clementine.  She’s an adult’s idealistic vision of what a third grader should be, and about as far away from Sendak’s Max as possible.  Like Sendak, I’d like the characters in children’s books to reflect real children, with their lumps and bumps and streaks of meanness and startling insights and un-cute moments. 

I won’t be talking with the third grade book group about my feelings about Clementine, since it’s our first meeting and I haven’t even met some of the kids yet.  I know that I tend to be a harsh, harsh critic, and I don’t want to burden our very first meeting with that baggage.  Unless, of course, the kids bring up Clementine’s character, and they want to discuss her.  It will be really interesting to see what they think of her.