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Clara in Washington
From CBCA shortlisted author, Penny Tangey, comes a moving – and funny – coming-of-age story set in Washington, D.C.
Clara is in Washington.
Living in Washington D.C. is meant to be all politics, glamour and great conversations but what do you do when you don't have the words to join in, or the knowledge to ride the subway, or you're scared someone will mug you and a million other disasters could be just around the corner?
For Clara, joining her mother on a three-month stint in Washington is her end-of-school adventure and a chance to be someone else other than the studious geek she's always been. Although, starting an adventure is hard to do when you won't leave the house.
But Clara didn't count on meeting Campbell and his anarchist group and she didn't count on her new discoveries threatening to unravel all her plans. Will she still be the same after Washington?
Based on the author's time spent living in Washington (where she wrote Loving Richard Feynman), Clara's experiences are shadowed by a Washington where Obama has just been elected and Bush is on the out. The people she meets and her experiences are all coloured by this exciting time in US history.
Clara is in Washington.
Living in Washington D.C. is meant to be all politics, glamour and great conversations but what do you do when you don't have the words to join in, or the knowledge to ride the subway, or you're scared someone will mug you and a million other disasters could be just around the corner?
For Clara, joining her mother on a three-month stint in Washington is her end-of-school adventure and a chance to be someone else other than the studious geek she's always been. Although, starting an adventure is hard to do when you won't leave the house.
But Clara didn't count on meeting Campbell and his anarchist group and she didn't count on her new discoveries threatening to unravel all her plans. Will she still be the same after Washington?
Based on the author's time spent living in Washington (where she wrote Loving Richard Feynman), Clara's experiences are shadowed by a Washington where Obama has just been elected and Bush is on the out. The people she meets and her experiences are all coloured by this exciting time in US history.
264 pages, Paperback
First published June 27, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 28, 2012
4.5 stars
When I first started teaching, I thought I was down with the students... until they asked me if I’d seen High School Musical.
Me: “No, what’s it called?”
Kid: “… High School Musical.”
Me, looking at the student like she’s special: “Your high school musical is called ‘High School Musical’?”
Kid, looking at me like I’m special: “Are you serious right now?”
One week later, after I’d bought and watched BOTH High School Musicals (because there are TWO of them!), I was leading the kids in “We’re all in this together...”
I think it’s pretty easy to find common ground with kids. Their High School Musical is my Newsies. However, one thing that differentiates 80s babies from this generation is that we never grew up with the constant fear of terrorism. Sure, we had Stranger Danger and Chester the Molester (and fear of rhymes apparently), and there were acts like the Oklahoma City bombing, but we didn’t live with a palpable threat. A fear of flying often carried the descriptor "irrational".
Clara has just finished taking her Year 12 exams in Melbourne and decides to accompany her mom to Washington, DC over summer break. Rather than feeling excited, Clara is anxious and scared. She’s scared of being attacked –- by muggers, by terrorists. She prefers to stay in the apartment watching Gilmore Girls and The West Wing (me on a normal day), but when she does venture out, she makes sure her cell is pre-dialed to 911 in one hand and her keys are sticking out of her fist in the other (me on a normal night). When not watching TV, she’s checking up on her friends back home on Facebook. After her mother suggests she volunteer and do something productive with her time, Clara signs up to volunteer at a soup kitchen and Reading Beyond Bars, an organization that sends books to prisoners. While working, she meets a guy, aka a REAL incentive to get out of the house. Over talks about life and politics, she finds herself leaving her comfort zone both physically and ideologically. This is a coming of age story set on the eve of Obama's inauguration.
Clara in Washington was such a fresh and unique read. For starters, it tackles a topic that I think is too often avoided: politics. Each chapter starts with a quote from a president or a political figure. It's crazy to me that incest (INCEST!) is fair game in YA, while politics seems taboo. I feel like I was more politically aware in high school, with Speech & Debate, JSA, etc, than I am now. Clara has political opinions. Of Obama versus McCain, she says,
Regardless of your opinion of Obama, his election had an impact beyond the United States. It's fascinating to view the election through the eyes of an Australian, and Penny Tangey describes the celebratory atmosphere the day he won the presidency. Likewise, I loved looking at our nation's capital from the viewpoint of a foreigner. I mean, if you think about it, what is it with our need to take pictures in front of phallic monuments?
While the topic of this book is something I gravitate towards, the tone is different from my usual reads. A lot of the story takes place in Clara's head. She's working through fears, guilt from her fears, doubts about herself and her future. Clara's voice reminded me a lot of Bindy Mackenzie -- they're both straightforward with a dry sense of humor -- but Clara isn't as sure of herself as Bindy. She's always wanted to study law, but she doesn't know if that's what she wants anymore. Whereas I had issues with Bindy, I really liked Clara. She's struggling with a lot in between random TV marathons and Facebook stalking, but her voice is so authentic.
This book made me think of Good Oil and The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie, but while I gave both of those books 3 stars, I'm giving Clara in Washington 4.5. The tone, the characters, the setting, the story just worked for me. I loved seeing Clara's development, which was gradual and full of mistakes. I loved lines like this:
This review appears on Young Adult Anonymous.
When I first started teaching, I thought I was down with the students... until they asked me if I’d seen High School Musical.
Me: “No, what’s it called?”
Kid: “… High School Musical.”
Me, looking at the student like she’s special: “Your high school musical is called ‘High School Musical’?”
Kid, looking at me like I’m special: “Are you serious right now?”
One week later, after I’d bought and watched BOTH High School Musicals (because there are TWO of them!), I was leading the kids in “We’re all in this together...”
I think it’s pretty easy to find common ground with kids. Their High School Musical is my Newsies. However, one thing that differentiates 80s babies from this generation is that we never grew up with the constant fear of terrorism. Sure, we had Stranger Danger and Chester the Molester (and fear of rhymes apparently), and there were acts like the Oklahoma City bombing, but we didn’t live with a palpable threat. A fear of flying often carried the descriptor "irrational".
Clara has just finished taking her Year 12 exams in Melbourne and decides to accompany her mom to Washington, DC over summer break. Rather than feeling excited, Clara is anxious and scared. She’s scared of being attacked –- by muggers, by terrorists. She prefers to stay in the apartment watching Gilmore Girls and The West Wing (me on a normal day), but when she does venture out, she makes sure her cell is pre-dialed to 911 in one hand and her keys are sticking out of her fist in the other (me on a normal night). When not watching TV, she’s checking up on her friends back home on Facebook. After her mother suggests she volunteer and do something productive with her time, Clara signs up to volunteer at a soup kitchen and Reading Beyond Bars, an organization that sends books to prisoners. While working, she meets a guy, aka a REAL incentive to get out of the house. Over talks about life and politics, she finds herself leaving her comfort zone both physically and ideologically. This is a coming of age story set on the eve of Obama's inauguration.
Clara in Washington was such a fresh and unique read. For starters, it tackles a topic that I think is too often avoided: politics. Each chapter starts with a quote from a president or a political figure. It's crazy to me that incest (INCEST!) is fair game in YA, while politics seems taboo. I feel like I was more politically aware in high school, with Speech & Debate, JSA, etc, than I am now. Clara has political opinions. Of Obama versus McCain, she says,
"Obama is inspiring and McCain is just blah."Before you think this is a purely pro-Obama book, the group of anarchists that Clara befriends through volunteering are vociferously anti-Obama. It's interesting that some of the complaints the anarchists have of Obama are issues that are being raised in the current election cycle.
Regardless of your opinion of Obama, his election had an impact beyond the United States. It's fascinating to view the election through the eyes of an Australian, and Penny Tangey describes the celebratory atmosphere the day he won the presidency. Likewise, I loved looking at our nation's capital from the viewpoint of a foreigner. I mean, if you think about it, what is it with our need to take pictures in front of phallic monuments?
While the topic of this book is something I gravitate towards, the tone is different from my usual reads. A lot of the story takes place in Clara's head. She's working through fears, guilt from her fears, doubts about herself and her future. Clara's voice reminded me a lot of Bindy Mackenzie -- they're both straightforward with a dry sense of humor -- but Clara isn't as sure of herself as Bindy. She's always wanted to study law, but she doesn't know if that's what she wants anymore. Whereas I had issues with Bindy, I really liked Clara. She's struggling with a lot in between random TV marathons and Facebook stalking, but her voice is so authentic.
This book made me think of Good Oil and The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie, but while I gave both of those books 3 stars, I'm giving Clara in Washington 4.5. The tone, the characters, the setting, the story just worked for me. I loved seeing Clara's development, which was gradual and full of mistakes. I loved lines like this:
"I don't have anything revolutionary but perhaps if I wear all black people will think I'm well-read."I think this is a timely, thoughtful, bold book. I would've absolutely loved reading this in high school. Having said that, this book is not for everybody. If the word "unpatriotic" is in your daily vocabulary, you will not like this book. If the words "unpatriotic" and "birther" are in your daily vocabulary, you will definitely not like this book. Seriously though, there are a lot of quiet moments where Clara is just thinking. I'm usually the first to roll my eyes when a book is described as being quiet, ie BORING, but this story wasn't boring for me. Clara in Washington is a fresh take on a girl discovering her place in the world during the time of school results, election results, and Facebook.
This review appears on Young Adult Anonymous.
January 4, 2013
A few years ago I read Loving Richard Feynman, which was innovative, interesting and a really good read. So I came to Clara in Washington, written by the same author, quite excited – an author I’d enjoyed in the past, a fish out of water storyline, a Washington setting – I should really enjoy this book. Unfortunately, I was soon to be disappointed.
Clara has finished her school exams, but doesn’t really want to go on her normal summer holiday excursion to the beach – mostly because she’s embarrassed about the ‘relationship’ she had with a boy who will also be there. Instead, she braves the big bad world and heads to Washington DC, where her mother is working, to explore the sites of Washington, volunteer her time and hopefully find herself. Who knew there’d be anarchists involved?
There was a bit of a slow start to the book, it didn’t really get going until chapter three, which is a pretty big no-no in a Young Adult book. By the time it got going, I pretty much wanted to reach through my iPad screen and shake Clara and about half the other characters in the book. Clara’s defining quality is that she apologises ‘too much’, asks too many questions and is very unsure of herself. This plays over and over again (just to make sure we get the idea). The problem is, there are some points in the story where people just expect her to know what’s happening and then get frustrated when she asks questions. To top it all off, there’s her romance with (possibly the biggest arsehole in young adult literature) a young ‘anarchist’, coffee maker, which somehow never seems believable. I didn’t believe that Clara wouldn’t be more cautious about her relationship with him when she’s over cautious about everything else in her life.
This book could have been great. Clara sees most of Washington, but all we get to see of it is a dusty Hope Diamond, a brief glimpse of a couple of other museums and a quick peek at the Lincoln Memorial. The anarchist plotline felt over laboured, more tell than show, with lots of researched information jammed in. The likable characters in the story got too little time – a story with them featuring more would have been much more interesting. But all in all, this book just never came together in a way that was enjoyable.
This review first appeared at Adventures of a Subversive Reader
Clara has finished her school exams, but doesn’t really want to go on her normal summer holiday excursion to the beach – mostly because she’s embarrassed about the ‘relationship’ she had with a boy who will also be there. Instead, she braves the big bad world and heads to Washington DC, where her mother is working, to explore the sites of Washington, volunteer her time and hopefully find herself. Who knew there’d be anarchists involved?
There was a bit of a slow start to the book, it didn’t really get going until chapter three, which is a pretty big no-no in a Young Adult book. By the time it got going, I pretty much wanted to reach through my iPad screen and shake Clara and about half the other characters in the book. Clara’s defining quality is that she apologises ‘too much’, asks too many questions and is very unsure of herself. This plays over and over again (just to make sure we get the idea). The problem is, there are some points in the story where people just expect her to know what’s happening and then get frustrated when she asks questions. To top it all off, there’s her romance with (possibly the biggest arsehole in young adult literature) a young ‘anarchist’, coffee maker, which somehow never seems believable. I didn’t believe that Clara wouldn’t be more cautious about her relationship with him when she’s over cautious about everything else in her life.
This book could have been great. Clara sees most of Washington, but all we get to see of it is a dusty Hope Diamond, a brief glimpse of a couple of other museums and a quick peek at the Lincoln Memorial. The anarchist plotline felt over laboured, more tell than show, with lots of researched information jammed in. The likable characters in the story got too little time – a story with them featuring more would have been much more interesting. But all in all, this book just never came together in a way that was enjoyable.
This review first appeared at Adventures of a Subversive Reader
June 5, 2011
The positives, the quotes at the beginning of each chapter were apt and enticing. The explanation and exploration of anarchy also were excellent and unusual.
Teen readers will love the premise of a girl having a few months holiday with almost total freedom in Washington with the bonus of meeting the gorgeous guy who also likes her; but Clara seems to have visited a different Washington to the one I saw. Where is the grandeur of the monuments, the wide open space the city devotes to them and the pride all Americans take in this capital city?
I found this book lacking believability and credibility. Characters, especially Clara family and friends, are vague and lacking definition. I was also not satisfied that Clara’s only reason for going with her mother to Washington was to escape a summer with Liam.
Minor points that again didn’t ring true with me was that although Clare volunteers at Reading Beyond Bars she has little interest in books or reading herself; she reads at the coffee/bookshop but never at home rather spending hours watching TV and movies. And true there is some shocking coffee in America but it is possible to get quality coffee too. The continual criticism of the coffee felt too much like a heavy handed plot device. Then there is the cover, I must have missed it but Clara has red hair? And why is she wearing summer clothing in a book set in winter in America? Where are the scarfs, hats and warm clothes mentioned so often? The scratchy scribbled cover is not Clara she is ordered and careful even if terribly fearful and uncertain.
This all sounds terribly negative and the book is not that bad but it’s just not as good as I believe it could have been.
Teen readers will love the premise of a girl having a few months holiday with almost total freedom in Washington with the bonus of meeting the gorgeous guy who also likes her; but Clara seems to have visited a different Washington to the one I saw. Where is the grandeur of the monuments, the wide open space the city devotes to them and the pride all Americans take in this capital city?
I found this book lacking believability and credibility. Characters, especially Clara family and friends, are vague and lacking definition. I was also not satisfied that Clara’s only reason for going with her mother to Washington was to escape a summer with Liam.
Minor points that again didn’t ring true with me was that although Clare volunteers at Reading Beyond Bars she has little interest in books or reading herself; she reads at the coffee/bookshop but never at home rather spending hours watching TV and movies. And true there is some shocking coffee in America but it is possible to get quality coffee too. The continual criticism of the coffee felt too much like a heavy handed plot device. Then there is the cover, I must have missed it but Clara has red hair? And why is she wearing summer clothing in a book set in winter in America? Where are the scarfs, hats and warm clothes mentioned so often? The scratchy scribbled cover is not Clara she is ordered and careful even if terribly fearful and uncertain.
This all sounds terribly negative and the book is not that bad but it’s just not as good as I believe it could have been.
February 4, 2012
It was a real toss up between one star and two, and in the end I decided to go with 2 since it really wasn't terrible, but it wasn't very good either. Here we have Clara, ready to believe in stereotypes and almost any rumor she hears. She meets Campbell, and feels like maybe she's missing something in her ordered life and starts dating him. Now, I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was that made me dislike him at first, but his patronizing and forceful ideals played a part. At the same time I'm mentally chanting 'Everyone has the right to an opinion', things just kept getting further and further from what I was willing to read. Clara herself was so weak minded and insecure at the beginning of the book that it was no surprise that he managed to press his ideas in, but I'm glad they didn't stick.
I felt angry every time and American salesperson or such looked down upon Clara for 'not knowing their ways'. I KNOW we have a unique accent here in Australia, and it wouldn't be so difficult for those scenes to show American customs without being rude about it. I would have no idea about tipping, or having a waitress 'take' a certain part of a restaurant or bar because we don't have anything like that here. You get paid for your work, and nothing more. I don't know what the author's intention was here, and I'm certain America couldn't be as bad as it was portrayed, but most of these scenes made me feel like defending Australia.
I didn't feel like we learned much about Anarchy, but we certainly were shown some of the bad parts. Not much of a book, and yet again another I wouldn't recommend. I'm on a streak of not so good books, it seems.
I felt angry every time and American salesperson or such looked down upon Clara for 'not knowing their ways'. I KNOW we have a unique accent here in Australia, and it wouldn't be so difficult for those scenes to show American customs without being rude about it. I would have no idea about tipping, or having a waitress 'take' a certain part of a restaurant or bar because we don't have anything like that here. You get paid for your work, and nothing more. I don't know what the author's intention was here, and I'm certain America couldn't be as bad as it was portrayed, but most of these scenes made me feel like defending Australia.
I didn't feel like we learned much about Anarchy, but we certainly were shown some of the bad parts. Not much of a book, and yet again another I wouldn't recommend. I'm on a streak of not so good books, it seems.
April 12, 2011
Actually a surprisingly insightful coming-of-age story. I thought this was going to be more of a teen romance, but the author hits the nail on the head in terms of understanding the isolation and confusion that most young adults feel when they first leave the comfort and security of high school to figure out where they fit in the larger world of adulthood.
February 14, 2012
An entertaining, well written coming-of-age story. I think a couple of the other reviews for this book were unfair - a character who is a bit unlikeable does not make a bad book. If a reader has a strong reaction to a character, I think it shows strong writing and convincing characters, which is a great achievement. I read this story in just two days, which goes to show that I liked it and was driven to find out what happens next.
January 30, 2020
i mean just another ya coming of age story really, rather typical and predictable, even with the so-called anarchism throughout it (this was the first time i ever used those little take one/leave one libraries/library boxes a few years ago - there’s a few now around where i live and if you ever see one near you i’d recommend having a peruse!)
Read
November 10, 2015Really enjoyed it.
Want to read
July 17, 2016I'm pretty sure I've never heard of this or the author, had no idea it was by an Aussie.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews