Third-grader Clementine has finally found the teacher of her dreams, so she's understandably crushed when she learns that Mr. D'Matz might be leaving for an extended research project. To save herself and her classmates from the dreaded substitute, she decides to take extreme measures to keep her beloved mentor close to home. A sweet, vocabulary-building story.
School Library Journal
Gr 2-4
Clementine and Mr. D'Matz, her third grade teacher, are finally "in sync." But now he's a finalist in a contest and will be spending the entire week with the Adventures for Teachers Committee and, if he wins, he will go on a research trip to Egypt and miss the entire school year. Clementine comes up with a plan to make sure Mr. D'Matz doesn't win that prize when the principal asks the children to write nomination letters. Everything from Clementine's wacky vegetable nicknames for her brother to the dizzying array of colors at the art supply store makes Sara Pennypacker's book (Hyperion, 2008) a kid-friendly celebration of words. Jessica Almasy does a nice job of capturing Clementine's young, enthusiastic voice. A fun listen for Clementine fans.-Deanna Romriell, Salt Lake City Public Library, UT
Kirkus Reviews
Clementine's only just "getting the hang of third grade"-she hasn't been sent to Principal Rice's office for a whole week-when her world turns upside-down: Her beloved Teacher is a finalist for an Adventures for Teachers award, and if he wins, he'll be gone for the rest of the year. As it is, he's absent for a week to prepare, and life with his substitute does not go well. Mrs. Nagel doesn't know any of the tricks Teacher did that helped to keep Clementine "in sync" with the classroom, so when Principal Rice asks the children to write letters of nomination to the award committee, Clementine sees her opportunity to sabotage his success. Pennypacker and Frazee have this latter-day Ramona down to a T, her distinctive voice and unruly curls happily unblunted by familiarity. The great success of this outing, however, lies in the warmth of the relationship between Clementine and Teacher, whose humane and sympathetic understanding of his admittedly difficult scholar will strike a welcome chord with readers, especially those out-of-sync students and their teachers. (Fiction. 7-11)
