Clementine Books in Order

The Clementine books follow an eight-year-old third grader in Boston who notices everything, blurts a lot of it out, and almost always means well even when the results are disastrous. She lives in an apartment building with her parents and her little brother, whom she prefers to call by vegetable names. Right away, the series makes it clear that this is a kid with a fast mind, a good heart, and absolutely no interest in behaving like a neat storybook child.

A lot of the action happens in the places that shape a child's everyday life: school, the apartment building, the sidewalk, the principal's office, a friend's bedroom, the family kitchen. Clementine's friend Margaret is more orderly and much more concerned with appearance. Her teacher, Mr. D'Matz, sees more in her than most adults do. Those small relationships matter because the books are built on child-sized problems that feel huge when you are living them, a bad haircut, a talent show, a substitute teacher, a class project, a spring trip, a family meeting.

Clementine is funny because she is trying.

Across the series, from Clementine to Completely Clementine, you watch a loose arc of one school year unfold. Friendships shift. Clementine worries that she is the hard one in the family. Her household changes as a new baby approaches. She gets older without becoming less herself, which is one of the best things about these books. They let growth happen without sanding off her wild edges.

The tone stays warm, observant, and very close to Clementine's point of view. The humor is real, but so is the ache of being misunderstood or scared that the people you love may change. Marla Frazee's illustrations help a lot here. They catch the mess, the energy, and the sideways logic of Pennypacker's narrator. If you want a chapter-book series that respects children, trusts their feelings, and still remembers to be very funny, this is exactly that.