Clarice Bean: Scram! by Lauren Child
| Clarice Bean: Scram! by Lauren Child | |
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| Category: Confident Readers | |
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Reviewer: Sue Magee
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| Summary: An excellent book for the confident reader with the Bean family mayhem in all its glorious complexity. Highly recommended. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 176 | Date: May 2022 |
| Publisher: Harper Collins Children's Books | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-0008541477 | |
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It was a hot summer day right at the beginning of the summer holidays and Clarice Bean was bored:
Nothing ever happens except for sometimes... And only on rare-sh occasions, which is hardly ever.
There are seven members of the Bean family living in the house: Grandad (who lives on the ground floor because he's wobbly), Mum and Dad, Clarice's older brother, Kurt and younger brother, Minal Cricket. There's also Marcie, who's main claim to fame seems to be that she steals the batteries from Clarice's torch, which means that she can't read in the airing cupboard. Clarice would love to have someone who listened to her, rather than wanting to talk, but the only one who does that is Granny and she lives in New York. The Bean family is different.
That day was different, too. It was the day that Clarice went to the shops for some spaghetti and canned tomatoes but came back with some cheap and rather nasty canned spaghetti and a dog. Marcie had always wanted a dog so Clement's entry into the household went down well with her and she even let Clarice have her old roller skates without charge, which is unheard of. Mum and Dad are away at a wedding, so Grandad's in charge and gets to deal with the difficult next-door neighbour and all the other problems which arise in the Bean household.
It's a couple of days of riotous fun for the Beans - and for the reader and it has a satisfying outcome for everyone. The content will delight the seven-to-eleven-year-old reader and they're going to encounter some challenging vocabulary and rewarding as well. There are some fun words in there too. I do love it when children learn that words are something you can play with. The font is excellent too - with plenty of changes in size and direction.
The hardback book has the heft and feel of a real, grown-up book and is a decent-length read at 176 pages: there's going to be a real sense of achievement when the final page is turned. And, don't forget, it's Lauren Child. What better recommendation can there be?
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy of the book to the Bookbag.
For more from Lauren Child, we can recommend Ruby Redford. Clarice Bean never tires of quoting her!
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