Utterly Me, Clarice Bean
Written by Lauren Child
Reviewed by Elise W. (age 10)
Utterly Me, Clarice Bean is about a normal kid. She has annoying siblings, a best friend, a copycat classmate, and a terrible teacher. Her best friend, Betty Moody, is doing a book project with her, except they can’t find a book to do. Betty’s parents are very cool and take Betty all around the world. One day at school Betty is missing. Her mean teacher, Mrs. Wilberton, asks her what book she is doing. Clarice says she is doing her favorite book series, The Ruby Redfort Collection. Since Betty Moody is missing, Clarice gets paired up with the naughtiest boy in school, Karl Wrenbury. Clarice is upset because she thinks that Karl will ruin her project. Read the book to find out what happened to Betty Moody and if Karl will ruin the whole project.
One of the characters that I found interesting was Clarice’s best friend, Betty Moody. Betty’s parents are nice and take her all around the world. Sometimes they drag her off to a foreign country at the last minute. I would like it if my parents did that.
Clarice reminds me of myself. She has older and younger siblings that annoy her constantly. My siblings annoy me by teasing me and by hitting me. She and I also wish that we could be only children.
There are a lot of illustrations that looked a little like sketches. The illustrator didn’t use any colors. Instead, she left them all black and white.
This story reminds me a lot of my life. Clarice has a best friend, a favorite book series, and weird brothers and sisters. I have two best friends and my favorite book series is Harry Potter.
I would recommend this book because it includes Clarice’s life at home and her dreadful school days. I think that kids in grades four to eight would enjoy this book. Readers will be able to relate to what is happening in Clarice’s life.