Clementine for Christmas
Daphne Benedis-Grab’s Clementine for Christmas is one of 36 books that currently make up Scholastic’s immensely popular Wish Series. Young Adult Author Daphne Benedis-Grab currently has eight novels available, and two are Christmas-themed!
Clementine for Christmas is her most recent Christmas-related novel, and it’s her only Wish Book, as far as I can tell.
Can Josie Save the Christmas Festival?
Josie blends into the background at Frost Ridge Middle School. As a volunteer at the Frost Ridge County Hospital, however, she’s confident, personable, popular. She’s in her element. Christmas is her absolute favorite time of year. Each year, she looks forward to the Christmas Festival that the hospital staff puts on for the patients. She remembers performing in that festival when her dad was sick, just before he died. She remembers the joy that the festival brought him, and she remembers the joy it brought her. Josie doesn’t like to sing in front of groups. She hasn’t performed in the festival since her father passed away. However, she knows how important it is. So, when no one else can organize the festival, Josie volunteers to do it.
Complications
What has she gotten herself into? Josie can sing and perform skits in front of sick children and their families. She loves volunteering, and she loves being able to bring her dog Clementine to comfort the children as well. However, even though she’s popular on the children’s ward that does not mean that she can speak to just anyone. When she asks everyone that she interacts with daily as a volunteer to perform and still doesn’t have enough acts, she nearly panics at the thought of asking staff from other parts of the hospital to perform. They’re strangers to her.
Josie is so upset that her anxiety may be the reason that the patients don’t get the Christmas festival that so many of them are looking forward to. However, that’s not the only thing weighing on her mind. Her mom has decided that it’s time to move out of her grandma and grandpa’s house, where they have lived since Josie’s dad died. Josie doesn’t want to move, but she can see how important it is to her mom. To add to her distress, the only places that her mom can afford won’t allow pets. How can she choose between her beloved Clementine and her mom’s happiness?
Oscar
Oscar would not have volunteered to perform for the kids at the local hospital. However, after getting into fights at school, his principal gave him no choice. He has to be here, but he doesn’t have to like it, and he most definitely will not dress up in stupid Christmas outfits and sing stupid Christmas carols for the kids, like Josie does. Oscar may like hanging out with Clementine, and he may even enjoy the smiles on the kids’ faces (he’ll never tell Josie that, though), but he still hates Christmas.
Oscar’s parents fight a lot. They fight about money. They fight about Oscar. Sometimes they fight about nothing at all. And, they always … ALWAYS … fight more at Christmas time. Which is why he dreads it every year, and cannot wait for it to be over. There’s no way he’s going to help with a stupid Christmas festival!
Gabby
Since moving here, Gabby has carefully crafted a reputation, ensuring that she’s simultaneous popular but doesn’t have close relationships. The last thing she needs after what happened when her last best-friend told everyone about her illness is a repeat of the worst time of her life.
So, of course, she’s horrified to discover that two kids from her middle school are volunteering at the hospital that another seizure lands her in. Determined to make them indebted to her enough to keep her illness a secret, Gabby decides to help make this festival the best one ever.
Christmas and/or Winter-Theme Wish Books
Robin’s Recommendation for Clementine for Christmas
I’ll admit that I was skeptical about reading this book because of its title. I love cheesy Christmas books and movies, but there is such a thing as too-cheesy, and the title convinced me that this book would fit firmly in that too-cheesy category. It took my granddaughters to convince me to give it a try. Two of my granddaughters read it last year, and loved it.
I loved the characters of Josie and Oscar almost immediately. (I was still skeptical about Clementine, though. She did win me over soon enough, though.) Josie is such a real and complicated character that it’s almost impossible not to like her.
Josie is the kid that hides out in the library, rather than subjecting herself to the harsh realities of a middle school cafeteria, with all of its cliques. She doesn’t have friends at school. Yet, when she puts on costumes and performs for children, she becomes a much more confident version of herself. So much so that it’s hard for Oscar to reconcile this bossy, take-charge girl with the mousy girl at school.
As a teacher, the character of Oscar reminded me so much of some of my students, who don’t know how to deal with life at home and it affects their behavior at school. The day of his fight at school, his parents are fighting at home. To escape their argument, Oscar leaves for school without eating breakfast or stopping to grab his hat or gloves.
“Oscar’s chest burned the way it always did when they fought, and he sped out of the house.”
Daphne Benedis-Grab, Clementine for Christmas
Cold, hungry, and upset, Oscar makes his way to school where he gets into a fight. He doesn’t know how to explain to his teachers, his coach, his principal, or his parents what their fighting is doing to him. In fact, the only person he can tell is Josie.
If you’re looking for a great Christmas read for your a boy or girl, ages 8-12, I highly recommend Clementine for Christmas. Pick up a second copy for yourself! It’s a quick read, and you’ll love talking with the young adults in your life about this book.
Be sure to check out my reviews of these other Young Adult Christmas Books!
