A review by corncobwebs
Clementine, Friend of the Week by Sara Pennypacker

Third-grader Clementine is super-excited because she's been chosen as Friend of the Week in her class. She gets to collect milk money, be the line leader, and present her life story to the class. At the end of the week, she'll get a booklet in which her classmates write nice things about her. Clementine decides that she should do favors for people (like giving them "tattoos" and helping them decorate their bikes for the bike rally) so that her classmates will be inspired to write lots of nice comments about her. Her week sours, though, when she has a fight with her friend Margaret, and gets even worse when she looses her kitten, Moisturizer. Once Moisturizer is gone, Clementine doesn't care about anything other than finding him. She learns that her classmates really care about her, though, because they band together to help her find her lost kitten. In the end, Moisturizer is safe and sound, and Clementine learns what it means to be a true friend.

This is an adorable story! I love the names that Clementine gives to the animals in her life. Besides Moisturizer, there's Flo-Max the lizard, which, when I read that name, made me laugh out loud. She also calls her brother various vegetable names (Mung Bean, Turnip, Corn), because she thinks that's only fair since she's named after a fruit. This is a great series to recommend to kids who like the Ramona or Junie B. Jones books.