Clementine Rose and the Ballet Break In

Jacqueline Harvey

Random House, 2015

pbk., 160pp., RRP $A12.00

9781742757575

Just in time to delight all her fans at the start of the school year is the latest adventure of Clementine Rose, who is so like the readers she so appeals to.    This time, with her ballet lessons having finally begun, Clementine’s dance class has been invited to perform at the reopening of the village hall.  And like so many young girls, she discovers that ballet is not all about tutus and dancing elegantly en pointe.  In addition to those issues, there’s trouble between Angus and Joshua when Joshua discovers Angus is involved in the ballet and thinks he is a sissy-pants.  An incident occurs in a soccer game that might put the whole performance in jeopardy.

Miss 8 Loves this series and disappeared for a couple of hours with this one in hand, devouring it in one read!  Like many girls of her age she dreams of being a ballerina but she also likes the realism of the stories too.  As one who has been involved in “boy-sports” since she was little, she relates to Angus’s dilemma although she was bewildered that these gender divides still exist.  This sparked a lot of discussion and shows that this series has a lot of substance in the storylines.

If you don’t yet have this series in your collection, then its addition would make you a hero of all those who are just emerging as independent readers still requiring the supports that early ‘chapter books’ offer but who want realistic, relatable characters and a sound, engrossing storyline.  Use these notes and activities to host a Clementine Rose literary lunch for them and discover the others in the series on her own blog