Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Clarice Bean, That’s Me! | 1999 | Lauren Child | Buy |
| 2 | My Uncle Is a Hunkle, Says Clarice Bean | 2000 | Lauren Child | Buy |
| 3 | Clarice Bean, Guess Who’s Babysitting? | 2001 | Lauren Child | Buy |
| 4 | What Planet Are You From, Clarice Bean? | 2001 | Lauren Child | Buy |
| 5 | Utterly Me, Clarice Bean | 2002 | Lauren Child | Buy |
| 6 | Clarice Bean Spells Trouble | 2004 | Lauren Child | Buy |
| 7 | Clarice Bean, Don’t Look Now | 2006 | Lauren Child | Buy |
| 8 | Think Like an Elf | 2021 | Lauren Child | Buy |
| 9 | Clarice Bean: Scram! | 2022 | Lauren Child | Buy |
The Clarice Bean series by Lauren Child follows a witty, imaginative girl who narrates the chaos of her large family and school life. Clarice has a very particular way of seeing the world, and her observations about her parents, siblings, best friend Betty Moody, and school rival Karl Wrenbury are both funny and perceptive. The series began as illustrated picture books before moving into longer chapter book format.
The early books, starting with Clarice Bean, That’s Me! in 1999, use Lauren Child’s signature collage illustrations throughout. From Utterly Me, Clarice Bean onward, the stories grow longer and more novelistic, though they keep the visual style with varied fonts and hand-drawn elements mixed into the text. Clarice also loves a fictional spy character called Ruby Redfort, which later inspired Child to write an actual Ruby Redfort book series.
After a long gap following 2006’s Clarice Bean, Don’t Look Now, the series returned with Think Like an Elf in 2021 and Clarice Bean: Scram! in 2022. These newer books brought Clarice back for a new generation of readers while keeping the same voice and humor that made the original stories popular.