Ok, so I’ve long been a fan of Charlie and Lola. I love Child’s use of textures and believable young voices. I love the way she portrays real life and make-believe alongside one another in the same way that children’s brains work. I love the textures and colours, and her incredible observational humour. But for some reason it never occurred to me to pick up the Clarice Bean books.
Clarice Bean, Utterly Me, has all the above. It’s clever, witty, and believable. And it explores one of my favourite book themes: why are books important? What can we learn from books? It turns out reading books for pleasure is important, and fiction can teach you just as much as that dreary non-fiction title! Who knew? :D
Also notable is the layout. In the same way that Charlie and Lola draws younger readers in with collage elements and wonderful illustrations, Clarice Bean is young-reader friendly, littered with pictures and text that does not stick to boring lines, but wanders off to do its own thing.
I am converted.
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