Clemintine By: Sarah Pennypacker

Chapter 1: Clementine tells how she is not having a good week. She starts off the day with good signs (just enough bananas in her cereal and being excused from class to work on an art project). She is in gifted math but loves art. Margaret is in art too. She leaves for the bathroom. When it seems as though it has been a while Clementine goes off to the bathroom to find her. Margaret is under the sink crying. A chunk of her hair is missing over her left ear. She had glue stuck in it from art class so she tried to cut it out. Clementine tried to help her even it out and cut out a big chunk. Margaret cut herself bangs but it just made everything worse. Clementine tried to make it more even and by then the art teacher came through the bathroom and sent Clementine to the principal’s office.

Chapter 2: After school that day Clementine met up with Margaret in the lobby of their apartment. Clementine gives Margaret the picture she drew of her and says she looks like a dandelion, which is exactly what Clementine was going for. Margaret wishes her hair was blonde or red like Clementine. Clementine tells Margaret about these special permanent markers her mother has and her brother (Whom she proceeds to call vegetable names) drew all over the wall with and they could not be washed out so they painted the entire room over. Clementine gets her markers and Margaret chooses the one called “Flaming Sunset” and proceeded to color over all of Margaret’s remaining hair and she even drew her bangs. Margaret’s mother was not happy.

Chapter 3:It is Tuesday and Margaret’s mother sent a note to their teacher saying not to let Margaret be alone with Clementine. This upset Clementine. Clementine’s father is the manager of the apartment building they live in so sometimes he lets her ride the service elevator. On the fifth floor they are painting and the painters were on stilts. Clementine worked up enough courage to go to Margaret’s mother and apologize. But when she answered the door nothing came out and Margaret’s mother informed her that she could not play with her today. Everything in Margaret’s apartment (even her room and family) looks like it came right out of a magazine. Clementine’s mother asks her if she wished that she would wear dresses and look nice. But Clementine’s mother is an artist and wears jeans and overall’s she doesn’t mind getting dirty. Clementine informs her mother about her secret wish to become an artist. But she already is. Clementine notices many things others do not. She goes off to the park to draw.

Chapter 4: Wednesday morning Clementine goes into her mother’s room and tries to convince her to let her stay home from school. Clementine’s mother realizes she chopped all of her hair off to make Margaret feel better. But today Clementine remembered that Margaret was getting braces put on today and would not be in school. Clementine was sent to Principal Rice for not being able to sit still.

Chapter 5: Clementine waited for Margaret to come home. Once she was home she met her in the lobby and showed her hair. This made Margaret happy. Margaret was even happier when Clementine told her she could color her hair with whatever color marker she wants. They went up to Margaret’s apartment and her brother Mitchell laughed hysterically at the both of them. Margaret colored Clementine’s hair green. Clementine’s mother is making her wear a winter hat to hide her hair. 

Chapter 6:It is Thursday and Clementine has told Margaret to sit with her on the back of the bus. Clementine is sent to Principal Rice by the bus driver for gluing her hair to Margaret’s. Clementine confesses that Margaret made her mad at her birthday party. Margaret is sent over to Clementine’s apartment to play after school. Clementine asks if her mother is still mad at her and Margaret said yes but there was really nothing more she could possibly do to make her hair any worse. The girls end up fighting and Margaret leaves. Clementine rushes into the bathroom thinking she is growing a beard. She yells for her father to get her his razor and he comes in identifying it as chocolate frosting. Clementine is invited to help her father clean the front of the building. They joke about how he is at a war with the pigeons because of the mess they leave.

Chapter 7: It is Friday and on the bus on the way to school Margaret walked right past Clementine and sat next to Amanda-Lee who was boring and talked about shopping malls. In school Clementine had to be excused from recess to work on her journal. She noticed outside the fourth graders playing and Margaret getting along great with Amanda-Lee. She was told to pay attention and her seat was moved away from the window. She came home to her father having a brilliant idea to scare off the pigeons. He had purchased a plastic owl to mount on top of the lion above the door to the apartment building. He shooed the pigeons away and cleaned up the mess with the hose and placed the owl on top of the lion. All of the pigeons came back and even some of them perched themselves on top of the owl. Clementine suddenly had an idea. She ran down to the copy shop gave them all the money she had to blow up a picture of her cat Polka Dottie who had died.

Chapter 8: It is Saturday and Clementine does not know what to do with her time because she usually plays with Margaret. She makes her way to the seventh floor to see how the paint is coming along. The painters are not there so Clementine tries on the stilts and falls numerous times. At 4 o’clock Clementine goes to the copy shop and picks up her large picture of Polka. Clementine takes the picture up to the eighth floor. While in the elevator Margaret steps in with Amanda-Lee behind her. She announces that they are going to the mall. Clementine ignores them and makes her way to Mrs. Jacobi’s apartment. She asks her if she may hang her picture in her window and Mrs. Jacobi accepts without hesitation or questioning. Clementine notices that Mrs. Jacobi is feeding the pigeons the cheerios that Clementine usually runs to the store to get for her. She then has a brilliant idea and asks her father if he would care if the pigeons made a mess on the side of the building. He said he would be incredibly happy if they moved there. So Clementine then proceeds to ask Mrs. Jacobi if she wouldn’t mind moving to the other window to feed the pigeons. She does this and everyone is happy. Clementine’s mother looks for her permanent markers and become furious because they’re in Margaret’s apartment. Clementine’s parents proceed to her apartment to retrieve them.

Chapter 9: Sunday Morning and Clementine’s mother could not stand looking at her green head anymore so she started to scrub her head in the sink. Pointy things bother Clementine so when her father was reading a story to her younger brother she yelled for him to stop because of the pointy shoes on page fourteen. To make herself feel better Clementine thinks about round things. SO she went into the kitchen and took out four slices of bologna and bit out circles in the middle to make them look like glasses. She gave a pair to her brother and everyone laughed. She then gathered items that Margaret favored  (Blue feather, her charm bracelet, sparkle nail polish) and glued them all to one of her mother’s hats. In the elevator on her way to give the hat to Margaret she was actually in the elevator. Margaret had a gift for Clementine as well. It was a new sparkle-glitter paint set since Margaret sat on Clementine’s at her birthday party. Margaret apologized for being mean and said she would see Clementine later at her party. Clementine did not know of any party.

Chapter 10: Clementine returned to her apartment from her exchange with Margaret to overhear her parents talking about a cake that with the label “Good-bye and Good Riddance”. Clementine began to feel sad and announced she would be cleaning her room which was rarely done. She took out every single thing from underneath her bed and found numerous things. She than began to cry and when her parents overheard her she began to apologize and state that she would be a better child and not move around so much in school and clean her room every day. Her parents took her out of her room where she was surprised to see her brother, Margaret, Margaret’s brother Mitchel, and Margaret’s mother all standing around the cake that said, “Good-bye and Good Riddance Pigeon War and Thank you Clementine!” Clementine came to the realization that this little party was for her and she received a new kitten which she took into the bathroom to find an exquisite word to name her. Also realizing that she wouldn’t change a thing in her life Clementine let Margaret pet ‘Moisturizer’.