CLEMENTINE: FRIEND OF THE WEEK by Sara Pennypacker

Our washing machine is broken. Lest I appear an unfit mother, I will carefully avoid ugly comments about teenagers who leave things in their pockets and damage the water pump on the machine, or two weeks later yank the door of the front loading washing machine open mid-cycle. I will also not make comments about teenagers who seem not to mind at all that their mother is dragging seven laundry bags of clothes to the laundromat each week while they sit home and watch television on a Sunday night.

So anyway, tonight I had to go to the laundromat. And I usually I don't particularly enjoy the laundromat. But tonight it wasn't so bad. Why, you ask? Well, because this afternoon at the library I found CLEMENTINE: FRIEND OF THE WEEK. And I love Clementine! I love that she finds the names of her pets in the bathroom, because there are so many beautiful words in there. I love that she is not perfect. I love her descriptions of her friend, Margaret, who is.

In this fourth book in the series, Clementine has been nominated for friend of the week. She wants people to write nice things in her "Friend of the Week" book, so she works hard at doing nice things for her classmates. She gives lots of compliments, sets up her own tattoo parlor on the playground, and makes big plans to help decorate everyone's bike for a weekend rally. Toward the end of the week, however, she is forced to put aside all of her plans when her kitten, Moisturizer, goes missing.

Clementine made the laundromat a whole lot more enjoyable tonight!