Clarice Bean That’s Me

Getting enough attention and at the same time enough space for yourself are common preoccupations for children in big families. The third child out of four, 7-ish Clarice Bean shares a bedroom with her younger brother (‘I have drawn a line down the middle. If he puts one toe over my side he is sorry’). Child’s spot-on portrait of contemporary family life (we meet Clarice’s glamorous older sister, Marcie, who lounges gracefully, reading about boys and brother Kurt who ‘says he wants to be left alone’ etc) has an anthropological quality reminiscent of Posy Simmonds’ Weber family in the 70s. Her scratchy, ink drawn illustrations with collage and a variety of typefaces are exuberantly inventive on the page and yet have a satisfying coherence. Unusually, the designer (Anna-Louise Billson) is credited on the title page. Only Child’s depiction of dad disappoints – with his unlikely kipper tie he looks like a 60s throwback. But this is a quibble about an otherwise inventive, funny book in which Clarice does manage, finally, to get her ‘piece of peace and quiet’.