La Talentosa Clementina (The Talented Clementine) Book

Despite being nothing at all like the Ramona Quimby books, they still remind me a LOT of them.

In this edition, Clementine is left scrambling for an act for the talent show. She has, she says, NO talents. Not even hopping. No, really, at 8 years old she still can't hop, poor child. And no doubt it doesn't help that her "perfect" upstairs neighbor and friend has more talents than she can count.

After rejecting tap-dancing (apparently, beer caps do NOT make acceptable taps when superglued to sneakers), moving to Egypt, and hiring a substitute, Clementine hits upon the perfect talent - leash her brother and perform Elvis! (It makes sense... sorta.) Unfortunately, her father nixes this idea and she ends up at rehearsal with nothing to do.

Fortunately, her ability to notice everything but what she's supposed to pay attention to keeps her occupied instead of moping - and she ends up applauded as the last-minute stage manager, a believable and in-character happy ending.

There were two false notes for me, both related to the tap shoes. First, when Clementine goes to buy new sneakers to replace the ones she ruined, her parents stage a big fight over who gets to take her (her father eventually bribes her mother with new shoes for herself AND a trip out to dinner at the Ritz) because she's a pain to shop with and insists on trying every pair of shoe so she can "not-choose" them before she chooses the ones she picked at the beginning. Reading about Clementine promising to "be normal" and not act like that... well, it breaks my heart, it does, and it seems out of character for her parents who typically seem pretty understanding of their daughter (not that they're overindulgent, just that they try to understand her). Secondly, at the end of the talent show they invite her to go to dinner at the Ritz with them, saying "we wouldn't even be going out if it weren't for you". To me, this reads as though they're rewarding her for ruining her shoes because they're only going out as the bribe for buying her new ones! It would have been better to say they're taking her to dinner to celebrate her starring backstage role in the talent show, I think.

Still, the rest of the book is wonderful. And, as I said in the first book, I love how the author writes the sibling relationship. You *know* your sister loves you when she writes "NO NUTS FOR ME!" on your head before she feels safe leaving you in care of the babysitter.