The Clarice Bean series is a set of children's novels written and illustrated by English author Lauren Child

Lauren Child

Lauren Child MBE is an English author and illustrator. She is best known for writing the Charlie and Lola books and Clarice Bean novels....

. It deals with the eponymous Clarice Bean's difficulties in navigating the complex ethical and social questions children deal with at school and at home. Books from the series have received several awards, including the Smarties Prize twice.

Family

Clarice Bean's family are

• Clarice Bean (her)
• Minal Cricket (her younger brother)
• Marcie (her older sister)
• Kurt (her older brother)
• Her dad
• Her mother
• Her Grandad

The books do not specify how old any of the characters are; Kurt is the oldest, Marcie is the second oldest and Clarice Bean is the third oldest, only that Minal is six (the youngest).

Other characters

The people at school are divided into two groups:

• The characters in more than one book
• The characters in one book

The Characters from more than one book include

• Patricia F. Maplin Stacey
• Mrs Wilberton
• Betty Moody
• Robert Granger
• Noah
• Grace Grapello
• Karl Wrenbury
• Toby Hawkling
• Suzie Woo
• Mr Pickering

The characters from one book include

• Jodie O Neal
• Alexandra Honker
• Bridget Garnett
• Rosa
• Mr Washington
• Clem Hansson
• Mr Larsson
• Ruby Redfort
• Kira

Betty Moody

Betty Moody is Clarice Bean's devoted best friend. Their catch phrase—‘Don't look now′ is used a lot in the first half of the book—Clarice Bean Don't Look Now.
Betty and Clarice Bean are big fans of Ruby Redfort. Betty moves to San Francisco in the 3rd book. Betty and Clarice Bean do most things together.

Karl Wrenbury

Karl is the son of a single parent, his mum. He is featured as at first an enemy and later a friend. He is very good with dogs and helps Grandad train their dog, Cement. He also is always a trouble maker and gets into trouble a lot at school by Mrs. Wilberton their class teacher. He is often sent to Mr.Pickering's office for his bad behavior. In one of the books, he throws his chair across the room.

Grace Grapello

Grace is mainly Clarice Bean's worst enemy. She can be very mean to Clarice Bean for no particular reason, especially about her spelling. She is good at just about everything and people say she is Mrs. Wilberton's 'Teacher's dreamy girl'. Mrs. Wilberton never believes Clarice Bean but she always believes Grace. race also is the teachers pet

Mrs Wilberton

Mrs Wilberton is Clarice Bean's Teacher. She does not seem to be particularly nice and is always telling Clarice off about her spelling. Clarice Bean describes Mrs Wilberton as having a "honking goose voice" and "a big derriere." She also possesses a gait which Bean and Karl describe as "walking on trotters" and Karl often impersonates.

Ruby Redfort

An important plot device

Plot device

A plot device is an object or character in a story whose sole purpose is to advance the plot of the story, or alternatively to overcome some difficulty in the plot....

 is the "Ruby Redfort collection," a series of fictional book

Fictional book

A fictional book is a book that sometimes provides the basis of the plot of a story, a common thread in a series of books, or the works of a particular writer or canon of work. A fictional book may also be used as a mode of conceit to illustrate a story within a story.-Prominent fictional...

s from which Clarice and Betty frequently find inspirational. Ruby's catch phrase is "You better believe it, Buster." The series is as follows:

• There Was a Girl Called Ruby
• Run For It, Ruby
• Where in the World Are You, Ruby Redfort?
• R U 4 Real, Ruby Redfort?
• Run Ruby Run
• Who Will Rescue Ruby Redfort?
• Ruby Redfort Saves the Day
• Ruby Redfort Rules
• Rush to Russia Ruby

These "books" are written by Patricia F Maplin Stacey, and in one book Betty meets Patricia F Maplin Stacey in Russia and gets a book signed. In another book, Bean gets to be in a Ruby Redfort movie, starring "Skyler Summer" as Ruby Redfort.
Lauren Child will launch the Ruby Redfort series in autumn 2011.

Hitch

Hitch is a character in the Ruby Redfort series. He is the Redfort family butler. He is the only one in the Redfort household that is aware that Ruby is a secret agent. Hitch has often helped Ruby escape from tricky situations.

Clem Hansson

Clem is a new girl at Bean's school. She is from Sweden and has a pet rabbit called Kahneen, which is swedish for rabbit. Bean describes Clem as pretty with whitish blonde hair, which is shiny all over. She has pointy green eyes and her skin is tanned. She is quite tall. She dresses quite differently to the people at Clarice's school. Clem is a better speller than Clarice Bean. Later on Clem invites Clarice Bean to her birthday party but Clarice Bean declines the party and doesn't even look at the invitation in the first place. Later on they become friends.

Book in the series

• Clarice Bean, That's Me (1999)
• My Uncle Is a Hunkle, Says Clarice Bean (Orchard Books: September 27, 2001)
• Clarice Bean, Guess Who's Babysitting? (Candlewick: March 1, 2001)
• What Planet Are You From, Clarice Bean? (2001) :0
• Utterly me, Clarice Bean (2002) - longlisted for the 2002 Carnegie Medal
  Carnegie Medal
  The Carnegie Medal is a literary award established in 1936 in honour of Scottish philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and given annually to an outstanding book for children and young adults. It is awarded by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals...
  
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• Clarice Bean Spells Trouble (2004)
• Clarice Bean, Don't Look Now (2006)