Always, Clementine

Starred review from July 11, 2022
Genius rodent Clementine finds her purpose with the help of friends and the game of chess in Sorosiak’s (I, Cosmo) heartfelt, adventure-filled tale. Due to altered DNA, Clementine shines in the lab, where researchers posit that she “could be the smartest mouse in history.” She dreams in Latin, solves mathematical equations, and understands humans’ speech. She also makes her first friend, fellow caged lab denizen Rosie, a gentle, curious chimpanzee. Clementine’s life is upended when a compassionate junior researcher stealthily liberates her and another mouse, Hamlet, to the nearby mailbox of Pop, the kindly host of local TV program Pop’s Hobbies. That’s where she’s discovered by 11-year-old Gus, Pop’s lively and thoughtful grandson, who earnestly promises his protection. Via a series of sensorially written, stirring, and by turns funny and suspenseful imaginary letters to Rosie, Clementine relates her experiences out in the wide world, where Gus, Pop, and a televised game of chess stand to save her from a grim fate back at the lab, which has offered a reward for her return. Maintaining a strong emotional core through Clementine’s voice, Sorosiak explores themes—including animal cruelty, duty, empathy, and intelligence—with a deft, light touch. Human characters largely read as white. Ages 8–12.

August 1, 2022
Grades 3-5 The escape-from-the-lab premise is a favorite within the animal-fantasy genre, but Sorosiak keeps it fresh in her latest endeavor. Mousenapped rather than escaped, Clementine has found herself and another lab mouse snatched from their cage and left in a stranger's mailbox with a note entreating whomever finds them to "please protect these mice." That's how a boy named Gus and his grandfather become their unwitting guardians. Experiments with mouse DNA have resulted in genius-level intelligence in Clementine, making her a bright yet naive narrator for this tale. Relayed through a series of imagined letters to her chimp friend, Rosie, Clementine describes the bonkers scheme devised by Gus and Pop to elicit support for keeping her from being returned to the lab--a televised chess game with Clementine facing a series of human opponents. It's a big-hearted endeavor that pulls in an eccentric cast of side characters who are immensely entertaining. Landing somewhere between Katherine Applegate's The One and Only Ivan (2012) and James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein's Word of Mouse (2016), this sweet-spirited adventure will easily find fans.

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Starred review from July 15, 2022
Letters from a super-intelligent mouse to the beloved chimpanzee she leaves behind when she escapes a research lab. Poignant, loving, and threaded through with the joy of discovery, the letters that Clementine mentally composes to her gentle simian friend tell a tale that takes suspenseful turns while affirming tolerance and self-expression. Thanks to tweaked DNA, she's thinking about prime numbers the day she is born, helps other mice navigate mazes, and figures out how to escape her cage at night and sign with the lab's sad, affectionate chimp, Rosie. When a guilt-ridden research assistant spirits her and another mouse subject out of the lab, leaving them in a nearby mailbox, she begins a series of reports to Rosie about the wonders of the outside world. Eleven-year-old Gus and his grandfather welcome the fugitives rather than turn them in for the large reward offered by the lab when the mousenapping is discovered. They create a storm of public protest against animal experimentation by televising a chess match in which Clementine beats five experienced human players simultaneously. Along with offering an optimistic, aspirational view of human nature as she winds the story to a joyous conclusion, Sorosiak tucks in a subplot around nonverbal Hamlet, the other mouse escapee, who constructs a model of Notre Dame out of wood chips, as food for further thought about different intelligences. The human cast seems to be mostly White. Serious themes lightened by comedic touches; the strong emotional attachments will linger with readers. (Fiction. 8-12)

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