Clarice Bean series

The Clarice Bean series is a series of children's books written and illustrated by the English author Lauren Child from 1999. The main character and narrator is Clarice Bean and the stories feature her challenges navigating the complex ethical and social questions children deal with at school and at home.

A spin-off series called Ruby Redfort, which the US publisher called a "six-book middlegrade fiction series" in advance, was inaugurated in 2011.[1]

Books

  • Clarice Bean, That's Me (1999)
  • My Uncle Is a Hunkle, Says Clarice Bean (Orchard Books, September 2001)
  • Clarice Bean, Guess Who's Babysitting? (Candlewick Press, March 2001) —an adaptation of My Uncle Is a Hunkle for the U.S. market
  • What Planet Are You From, Clarice Bean? (2001)
  • Utterly me, Clarice Bean (2002)
  • Clarice Bean Spells Trouble (2004)
  • Clarice Bean, Don't Look Now (2006)

Both That's Me and What Planet? were bronze runners-up for the Smarties Prize in ages category 6–8 years and the latter won the Kids Club category. That's Me was also a highly commended runner-up for the Kate Greenaway Medal, the annual British Library Association award for children's book illustration.[2][lower-alpha 1]

Utterly Me was the first novel in the series and one of 39 books nominated by the librarians for the Carnegie Medal, companion to the Greenaway.[3]

Trouble made the shortlists for both the British Children's Book of the Year and the Red House Children's Book Award.

Family

Clarice Bean's family consists of : Clarice Bean Tuesday (age 12) Minal Cricket Tuesday (her younger brother, age six, who is a pest) Marcie Tuesday (her older sister, age 14), Kurt Tuesday (her older brother, age 16), her dad, her mother, her granddad, and her grandmother.

Kurt is the oldest child followed by Marcie, Clarice, and then Minal is the youngest.

Other characters

Betty P. Moody

Betty Moody is Clarice Bean's best friend, and they do most things together. As well as Clarice herself Betty loves the Ruby Redfort series. Betty also loves dogs and in the 1st book she got a dog from Clarice's grandad's best friend. She appears in the series wearing glasses. She and her parents traveled a lot, along with call-me-Mol and call-me-Cecil. In the last book, she moved to San Francisco because when call-me-Mol went to California for a vacation, she found a job and decided to work there.

Karl Wrenbury

Karl is the son of a single parent, his mum.His dad ran away when he was younger. He is featured as at first an enemy and later a friend. He is very good with dogs and helps train Grandad and their dog, Cement, manners. He also is always a trouble maker and gets into trouble a lot at school by Mrs. Wilberton their class teacher. He is often sent to Mr. Pickering's office for his bad behavior. In one of the books, he throws his chair across the room.

Grace Grapello

Grace is mainly Clarice Bean's worst enemy. She can be very mean to Clarice Bean for no particular reason, especially about her spelling. She is good at just about everything and people say she is Mrs. Wilberton's 'Teacher's dreamy girl'. Mrs. Wilberton never believes Clarice Bean but she always believes Grace. Grace is the teacher's pet.

Mrs. Wilberton

Mrs. Wilberton is Clarice Bean's Teacher. She does not seem to be particularly nice and is always telling Clarice Bean off about her spelling. Clarice Bean describes Mrs. Wilberton as having a "honking goose voice" and "a big derriere." She also possesses a gait which Clarice Bean and Karl describe as "walking on trotters" which Karl often impersonates.

Clem Hansson

Clem is a new girl at Clarice Bean's school. She is from Sweden and has a pet rabbit called Kahneen, which is Swedish for rabbit. Clarice describes Clem as Sadie Blanch, a fictional character from the Ruby Redfort series.

Czarina

Czarina is Clarice Bean's drama teacher. She is from Pakistan.

Quincy

Quincy is Betty's new friend. She talks a lot and has an older brother whose name is unknown.

Book within the book

An important plot device is the Ruby Redfort collection, a series of fictional books in which Clarice Bean and Betty Moody frequently find inspiration. They are about a young, American girl, who is an undercover secret agent. In Clarice Bean Spells Trouble, Clarice Bean and Betty Moody also watch the Ruby Redfort television series, which was adapted from the books. In Utterly Me, Clarice Bean, it is revealed that Hollywood are adapting it into a film. There are nine books in the series:

  • There Was a Girl Called Ruby
  • Run For It, Ruby
  • Where in the World Are You, Ruby Redfort?
  • R U 4 Real, Ruby Redfort?
  • Run Ruby Run
  • Who Will Rescue Ruby Redfort?
  • Ruby Redfort Saves the Day
  • Ruby Redfort Rules
  • Rush to Russia Ruby

The fictional author is Patricia F Maplin Stacey, whom Betty once meets in Russia (she gets a Ruby Redfort book signed). In another book, Clarice gets to be in a movie starring "Skyler Summer" as Ruby Redfort.

Hitch is a character in the Ruby Redfort series. He is the Redfort family butler. He is the only one in the Redfort household that is aware that Ruby is a secret agent. Hitch has often helped Ruby escape from tricky situations.

Lauren Child contracted to begin a real Ruby Redfort series in autumn 2011.[1]

Ruby Redfort

The Ruby Redfort books are now actual books and there are six in the series so far. These include:

  • Ruby Redfort: Look Into My Eyes
  • Ruby Redfort: Take Your Last Breath
  • Ruby Redfort: Catch Your Death
  • Ruby Redfort: Feel the Fear
  • Ruby Redfort: Pick your Poison
  • Ruby Redfort: Blink and You Die

Notes

  1. ↑ Today there are usually eight books on the Greenaway Medal shortlist. According to CCSU, some runners-up through 2002 were Commended (from 1959) or Highly Commended (from 1974). There were 31 highly commended runners-up in 29 years including Lauren Child and Chris Riddell in 1999.

References

  1. 1 2 "Candlewick Press sign Lauren Child's Ruby Redfort series from Harper Collins UK". Press release 23 March 2010. Candlewick Press. Retrieved 2012-05-19.
  2. ↑ "Kate Greenaway Medal" Archived 16 September 2014 at the Wayback Machine.. 2007(?). Curriculum Lab. Elihu Burritt Library. Central Connecticut State University (CCSU). Retrieved 2012-07-02.
  3. ↑ "The CILIP Carnegie Medal - Nominations for 2002 (Awarded in 2003)". Press release 3 March 2003. CILIP. Retrieved 2012-07-16.
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