Always Clementine by Carlie Sorosiak

She's a mouse. She's a genius. She's on the run.

Clementine is a mouse living in a laboratory. She has been breed to test intelligence. She has a super brain. But one of the lab workers is distressed by the cruelty to the animals as they are used for science experiments and so one evening he grabs Clementine and another mouse named Hamlet. He does not know where to take them without getting caught himself, so he ends up putting them into the letter box of a well-known television presenter. 

"Back at the lab, I had many theories about the Outside: what would it smell like (fresh), what would it taste like (woodchips but woodier.). I wondered if the Outside was just another series of boxes, a maze within a maze. But it isn't. It's open! It's wide!"

Pop, the owner of the letterbox, is a former chess champion. His grandson Gus has come to stay for the Summer. Pop has given up chess and he won't explain why. Gus is a keen player but at Pop's he has to play by himself until they both discover Clementine is a genius and brilliant at chess. She is also a fugitive. How can Pop and Gus save Clementine and her friend Hamlet and can they also save the other poor mice back in the lab?

This lab does not just have mice, though. Clementine has a best friend at the lab - a chimpanzee named Rosie. Clementine is so desperate to return to her friend but she also discovers the scientists have plans to dissect her brain so returning is way too dangerous. All Clementine can do for now is write letters (in her mind) to her best friend. That is the structure of this book - it is a series of letters from Clementine to Rosie - a blow by blow account of her six days of freedom.

Do you see my five stars for this book? I read this whole book (308 pages) in one sitting. I highly recommend you add this book to your library shopping list. It might also be a terrific class read aloud for Grade 4 or 5. 

Starting with the adorable cover, this is a book that is sure to appeal to animal lovers and may turn some of them into activists. Kids Book a Day

Friendship and love are key in this poignant, sometimes gently humorous book, as are the importance of social justice and what true goodness really means. Be prepared to lose your heart to Clementine as she bares her soul in her letters. Red Reading Hub

Publisher blurb: I am an optimist. A very difficult thing to be, sometimes, at three inches tall. Clementine is a genius. She can calculate pi to 69,689 places, remembers the exact moment she was born, and dreams in Latin.  She’s also a mouse.  And when she escapes from the lab which has bred her, Clementine discovers that it’s not enough to be the smartest mouse in history if she wants to survive in the real world – especially while the scientists who kept her are trying to recover their prize specimen. So, together with her new human friends, Clementine must find a way to earn her freedom – for good.

You can hear the first chapter here.

Book Depository blurb: Clementine is different from other mice: she can calculate the speed of light and she dreams in Latin. The scientists say she's a genius and put her through test after test. Clementine is proud of being a good lab mouse, but she's lonely. Her only snatches of friendship occur during her late-night visits with a chimpanzee named Rosie. When a compassionate lab technician frees Clementine, the mouse discovers an outside world full of wonders: Brussels sprouts, games of speed chess, television fame, and a chance for a real home. But for Clementine, it's not enough to be free when she knows that Rosie and the other mice are not. 

Here is another cover from the hardcover edition - I prefer it - do you?

The most obvious book to link with Clementine is The One and Only Ivan.  Other companion reads are:

Word of Mouse

Mousenet

The Umbrella Mouse

A couple of years ago I read another book by Carlie Sorosiak - it's another five star book. Here are the US and UK covers:

I, Cosmo