{"id":6535,"date":"2015-08-29T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-08-29T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=6535"},"modified":"2015-08-28T13:27:28","modified_gmt":"2015-08-28T18:27:28","slug":"writing-clementine-by-kate-gordon-book-review-journaling-secrets-reader-optional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=6535","title":{"rendered":"Writing Clementine, by Kate Gordon (book review) – journaling secrets, reader optional"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"book<\/a>When there’s nothing to write about
\nand you still have to write<\/a>,
\nsometimes big truths appear…<\/p>\n

Year 9 is tough on Clementine, with her best friends and family members growing away from her, until fascinating Fred arrives, dressed like a dandy from a bye-gone era, asking her to join his steampunk world and truly become the self she writes about in her philosophy class journal.<\/p>\n

This Australian title arrives in the US on Sept. 1st\u00a0, so your local library<\/a> or local independent bookstore<\/a> should be able to easily get it through Independent Publishers Group.<\/a><\/p>\n

Several in-school personas in Writing Clementine<\/em>\u00a0 don’t match up with their leisure-time pursuits – what’s the most unusual public-private contrast you’ve seen?<\/p>\n

**kmm<\/p>\n

Book info<\/strong>: Writing Clementine \/ Kate Gordon. Allen & Unwin, 2015.\u00a0 [author site<\/a>]\u00a0 [publisher site<\/a>] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.<\/p>\n

My book talk<\/strong>: Clementine feels left behind as family and friends change, so a new student’s invitation to role-play in a steampunk society lets the Tasmanian teen experience acceptance and romance that she never even dreamed about in her journal.<\/p>\n

Her best friends demand that Clem grow up in a hurry, then they move on. Her brother’s been holed up in his room for a year, and she feels responsible. Her philosophy teacher requires daily journal writing, but won’t read or comment on it unless asked.<\/p>\n

A new student moves to town,\u00a0like a reviving breeze with his elegant clothes and intriguing smile. Fred is such a contrast to creepy Sam and the other boys at school!<\/p>\n

When Fred introduces her to the Burnie Steampunk Society, Clem finds new friends as they pretend to live in Victorian times.<\/p>\n

Can she ever accept that Fred likes her just as she is?
\nWhy can’t she just fix what’s wrong for her beloved big brother?
\nWhat should she do about Sam’s unwanted attention?<\/p>\n

Clementine faces choices, changes, and challenges during her first year of high school, as recounted in the pages of her philosophy class journal. (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When there’s nothing to write about and you still have to write, sometimes big truths appear… Year 9 is tough on Clementine, with her best friends and family members growing away from her, until fascinating Fred arrives, dressed like a dandy from a bye-gone era, asking her to join his steampunk world and truly become […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,29],"tags":[203,104,22,4,75,197,11,20,5,16,18,40,44,43,36,39,96,31,15,9,21,57,35,3,61],"class_list":["post-6535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-steampunk","tag-abuse","tag-australia","tag-behavior","tag-belonging","tag-brothers","tag-bullying","tag-communication","tag-conflict","tag-coping","tag-determination","tag-family","tag-fathers","tag-friendship","tag-growing-up","tag-independence","tag-love","tag-mental-health","tag-non-us-author","tag-relationships","tag-school","tag-self-image","tag-sisters","tag-surprises","tag-teens","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6535"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6575,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6535\/revisions\/6575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}