Éclair Goes to Stella’s Engages Early Readers

Author Michelle Weidenbenner sent me a copy of her new chapter book for 5 – 10 year olds, Eclair Goes to Stella’s. Since the main character, seven-year old E. Clair is the same age as my granddaughter, Amelia, I gave it to her to read first.

Amelia loved it and couldn’t wait to tell me about her favorite parts — the rescued horse and Éclair’s eccentric grandma who prefers to be called “Stella” not “grandma” because that “sounds old and I’m not!” I liked her sassy character myself and thought she’d be a pretty fun grandma to visit. The narrator of the story is Éclair, which prompted Amelia to say: “it could have happened to me.”

Éclair and her two-year old sister need to stay with their grandmother because their mom is sick and their dad is working. Weidenbenner wrote the book with her own granddaughter, Alanna, who was seven at the time. Alanna’s mother was sick for a while and was gone for five months. Alanna missed her and didn’t understand, so in her mother’s absence they wrote stories.

When Éclair meets her grandmother, she is put off by her “long reddish-purplish hair sticking out from underneath a black cowboy hat.” She’s even more apprehensive when Stella shows her the rescued horse that is covered with bloody sores along his ribs. Éclair mistakenly believes that her grandmother beats her horse.

As the story unfolds, we come to see a softer side of Stella who actually rescues mistreated animals. As the bond forms between Éclair and her grandmother, some important lessons are learned about loss and responsibility. By the end of the book Éclair has a change of heart about her grandmother and even makes a new BFF.

Because my granddaughter loves animals and rides horses she found the setting appealing and believable. Weidenbenner drew on her personal experience to create the setting. She never cared about horses until her youngest daughter became smitten with them. She learned along with her and noticed that her daughter seemed to relate to horses better than people. She researched horses and was fascinated to learn that they help children with special needs and children who struggle with attachment issues.

The author has a real feel for character development, dialogue and setting. The end of the book includes an introduction to the further adventures of Éclair in Weidenbenner’s next book, Eclair Meets a Gypsy.