Chris Soul

I am an optimist. A very difficult thing to be, sometimes, at three inches tall...

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Carlie Sorosiak, author of the wonderfully whimsical and endearing 'I Cosmo' and 'My Life as a Cat', brings us another fabulous tail - tale! 'Always, Clementine' is both charming and bonkers, heartfelt and wild with a uniquely tiny protagonist with huge, extraordinary thoughts. I enjoyed it immensely!

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Clementine is a genius. She can calculate pi to 69,689 places, remembers the exact moment she was born, and dreams in Latin. She's also a mouse. And when she escapes from the lab which has bred her, Clementine discovers that it's not enough to be the smartest mouse in history if she wants to survive in the real world - especially while the scientists who kept her are trying to recover their prize specimen. So, together with her new human friends, Clementine must find a way to earn her freedom - for good.

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What is immediately apparent about 'Always, Clementine' is the unique first-person narration of a genius mouse. Like 'I Cosmo' and 'My Life as a Cat', Carlie Sorosiak is able to channel the inner life of an animal with tenderness and empathy, while shedding light on the chaos, flaws and goodness in humanity. In this book, each chapter is a 'thought-letter' addressed to Clementine's friend at the lab, a chimpanzee known as Rosie. There is such yearning in her voice, but also such wisdom, empathy, vulnerability and, of course, genius. It's very absorbing and unusual. There is plenty of humour but also a lot of tension as Clementine and her new friends try to evade the researchers at the lab. I loved all the human characters - Gus and his Grandpa and the other chess players. And Hamlet! Just you wait... On top of this, I really enjoyed the link to chess, as Clementine's way to prove to the world her worthiness for existence. Imagine Netflix's 'The Queen's Gambit' meeting 'Stuart Little' and you get the idea! 

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At its heart this is a story about reminding children to take care of even the tiniest creatures and to protect them from experimentation and exploitation. All creatures are geniuses in their own right and Carlie Sorosiak superbly, beautifully captures this fact in her children's books. Immense fun too!

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Thank you to Nosy Crow for my copy to review. 

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https://www.waterstones.com/book/always-clementine/carlie-sorosiak/9781839941085

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