Clara can’t wait to write some groundbreaking investigative journalism pieces for her school newspaper, the Kensington Middle School Gazette. When she’s given the job of writing the paper’s horoscope column instead, Clara is devastated. She doesn’t even believe in horoscopes or anything else she considers “Woo!”

She’s hoping to only have to write the column once to pay her dues and then move on to more interesting articles, like the mystery of the missing school mascot, but the horoscopes Clara has written are coming true. All of a sudden everyone around her thinks she’s clairvoyant, despite her protests that she is most definitely not.

I liked Clara’s mother, who practices herbalism, has a group of new friends that Clara disapproves of and paints her home in colours Clara finds outrageous, like Ripe Tomato and Mango Tango. Clara’s mother’s friends were a fun, eccentric bunch.

““Seriously?” Was there no end to these people’s weirdness?”

I also liked Clara’s best friend, Maeve, who’s enthusiastic, loves crime dramas and wants to star in the school play.

Clara, though? I didn’t like her much at all. I understand that she’s missing her old home and her grandmother, who’s recently moved away, but her enthusiasm for most things was underwhelming at best and her attitude needed a serious realignment for the majority of the book. I didn’t like the way she judged everything she didn’t personally believe in and the people who did believe in those things.

““You can’t predict the future,” she told herself aloud. Could she?”

I would have loved to have explored the Mystic Mart, which is like “Walmart, but with voodoo dolls.” Although we do solve the mystery of who stole the school mascot, we never learn the identity of the Counterfeit Kid.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Puffin, an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada Young Readers, for the opportunity to read this book. I’m rounding up from 3.5 stars.

Adorable story. I purchased this for my library and recommend it to those looking for a bit of mystical mystery. Great middle grade read with a strong female character.

This was good. But I was expecting a full story, more pasion, more feeling. I can't feel all I wanted for this one, I supoused I had very high expectations and that was all.
The story just was flat for me, I really can't ended up.

Clara Voyant is a fun, light hearted middle grade brook which I really enjoyed. It had an interesting, tightly written plot and fun characters which all brought something to the story. 

Clara is new to her school, and as an aspiring journalist, she is keen to impress Wesley Ferris, the editor of the school newspaper. She joins the team, but is gutted to find that Wesley won't assign her to any investigative pieces, instead relegating her to the horoscopes section. Clara is gutted, not least because she doesn't believe in horoscopes. However, when Clara's horoscopes begin to come true, she wonders whether she was wrong to dismiss them. When a crime is committed at her school, Clara decides to use her newfound mystical powers to solve the mystery and prove herself as a brilliant journalist. 

The plot of this book keeps you interested from the beginning, with multiple storylines and mysteries unfolding at the same time. There is the mystery of the stolen school mascot, Clara's potential new powers, her best friend Maeve's audition for the school play, and many more smaller storylines unfolding in the background. It really was a perfect cosy crime novel. 

Despite the book having a wide range of characters, it never felt convoluted or busy. Each character stood out and played a role, however small, and added something to the book and plot. Clara is clever and ambitious, her best friend Maeve is bold and driven and the pair's friendship was very entertaining. I also enjoyed the adult characters in the book, such as Mrs Major, the school's custodian, and Clara's mother with all of her quirks. 

Overall, this book was a really enjoyable read that would be perfect for children and young teenagers. I think that this book is a standalone, but Clara definitely has the potential to lead her own series and I would happily read along.

I was so glad to be given this ARC as an exchange for a review.

I was expecting a lot more from it, but what can I say. It was a story about friendships and learning something that you refused to learn and turning it to be something that you are good at."

The most interesting thing about this book is a funny and light story. I am no longer a teenager and hope that love will disappear for Clara. But this is a fresh story and an easy to understand storyline.
Horoscopes also become an acceptable aspect of the reader. That Clara's mother forced Clara to believe in a horoscope. And this story develops well without feeling overdone.
And of course with the shadow of the bulletin work in college, this story comes alive. The story of characters being chased deadlines, perfect news and this is really interesting for readers. Yes, indeed the end of the story is predictable, but it's still fine. I give praise to writers who raise the theme of youth journalism and this encourages all readers to work hard to develop their talents.

A middle grade novel that features horoscopes, mysteries, and a skeptical writer in the midst of it all. Despite the dreamy cover, this book was a funny and realistic fiction look at a middle school newspaper.

Clara is intensely judgmental of both her grandmother and her mother in a way that feels weird for her age and personality. Plus her mother almost seems as if her life just barely involves her kid. It all felt like the adults were written for the purpose of the story, so we'd sympathize with Clara more. I didn't like it very much, though it was cute.

This was a totally charming middle-grade read! Clara is an appealing character with a nice sarcastic/skeptical side. The plot moves briskly and confidently, and nothing feels extraneous. Every character has something to contribute. The novel also has a great sense of place, with the Kensington Market setting feeling very real.

Ha! Easy, quick summer or weekend read! Humorous story for 3, 4th grade up! Poor Clara, she wants to write serious news for her school newspaper, but finds herself assigned to write horoscopes- which, to her horror- come true! Very funny story kids will enjoy.

I loved this book! The full review will be posted soon at kaitgoodwin.com/books! Thank you very much for this wonderful opportunity to connect books to their readers!

What a fun story! Clara is a middle school girl whose life has just been turned upside down.
She used to live with her easy-going mother and more conventional and disciplined grandmother in a nice home. However, Grandmother decided to see her home and move to Florida. Clara and her mother had to find a new home and her mother new employment.

Her new life is hard to get used to and breaking into a new school is never easy. Clara longs for her old life. She works for her school newspaper, but can't seem to get a good assignment as a reporter. The editor gives her the assignment to write horoscopes for the paper. While her mother is very well versed in such things, Clara feels this is nonsense and just makes up things for each sign of the Zodiac. Her pen name becomes Clara Voyant when her predictions begin to come true. Clara has to learn to adjust to her new life, her new friends, her expectations, her dreams for the future, and learning just what her talents really are.

This is a great book, especially for the very trying middle school years, when youth have a hard time figuring out how to relate in a changing world.

Just like its cover, Clara Voyant is a fun and cute read. The story unfolds naturally and the characters are all well-developed; even the side characters are interesting. The author already wrote several MG books before, so I’m looking forward to check out more of her works!

For full review, please click on the link.

Clara is a very down-to-earth girl who dreams of having a column in the newspaper. Well, you know what they say, be careful what you wish for. The column she gets is the horoscope and her Bohemian mother is overjoyed. Read the book to see how Clara navigates middle school and comes to term with her new responsibilities.

I really liked this middle grade novel!

This story is set in Toronto, in Kensington Market. It’s a quirky area of the city, so it is perfect for Clara’s mystical mother.

I liked the twist on the story when Clara had to write horoscopes. She didn’t want to write them because she didn’t want to be like her mother, and then she was shocked when they started coming true! She was given the nickname Clara Voyant, but she suspected it was probably just a coincidence that her horoscopes came true.

One thing I would have liked to see more of was Clara’s grandmother. Clara used to live with her grandmother, but she recently moved to Florida. Her grandmother was so busy having fun at her new home that she didn’t even answer Clara’s phone calls! I found that strange, and I wish she would have communicated with Clara or visited her.

A delightful read featuring a relatable mother-daughter realtionship, with lots of middle school drama, and a smattering of magical mystery Clara's slightly dry, pitch-perfect tween first person perspective was a treat to read.

Great book. I can see this being a hit with the students. I have added it to my list of books to buy.

An enjoyable middle grade read filled with memorable characters, engaging storylines and a superb location highlighting the eclectic Kensington Market neighbourhood in Toronto. A bit slow to start, the novels picks up when the mystery of the missing mascot is introduced alongside main character Clara’s school newspaper assignment of writing horoscopes. The real gem of this novel is the authentic relationship between Clara and her mother. Middle grade readers are sure to connect and enjoy this entertaining story.

Clara moved to a new neighborhood recently and doesn’t really like it. The people here are too weird and it doesn’t help that all her mother is talk about herbs, ghosts and powers.
What Clara wants to do is stick to the fact and become a journalist. She actually writes at her school’s paper but the editor only gives her small articles to do until she gets her own column… The horoscopes. Everything she hates…

I found the plot pretty well done even though I didn’t like the way it ended.
Overall, I found it to be okay but the characters really annoyed me most of the times. And I do mean all the characters. The parents, as well as the students, the administration, everyone.
But still, the story took me by surprise from time to time and it was a short read...

5 Reasons To Read Clara Voyant

It's Such A Relaxing Book!

Oh gosh... I loved Clara Voyant so much! If you've been reading something that stressed you out (*cough* Obsidio! *cough*), then this will be like a soothing balm on a sunburn (me and my analogies.) It's a bright, hopeful, relaxing book, like many MGs are – and yet, it's also so colorful and dynamic. I loved it!

Colorful Cast

Which brings me to the next part. Clara's new neighbourhood is basically The Capital of Hippie. It was amazing! But even aside from that, the non-hippie part of the cast is also incredibly endearing, colorful and discernable. The wacky neighbours, the New Age mom, the happy go lucky best friend, the harsh but sincere school caretaker, the very proper and prim school newspaper leader... I could go on. They're all great! The cast is actually so colorful and lovely you won't be able to get enough of them. I would read a sequel. Or a spin-off. Actually, probably a spin-off would be best! (Keep dreaming, Evelina.)

Strong Girls Who Mean Business

Clara and her best friend Maeve are amazing lead girl characters to read about – I would have wanted to be just like them. Clara is an achiever – she knows what she wants, and that is to be a journalist, and she pursues that path. Maeve is also similar, although she's driven more by her talent rather than ambition. She's an actress and she must make the choice of whether she will audition for a male role, or challenge the director to change the role to a woman (hint: it's a manly character role as well). All of this sends messages to the reader – especially the way these girls are not afraid to challenge their superiors when they're in the wrong – both of them. Wonderful role models!

A Message About Counting Your Blessings

What Clara doesn't realize is that despite being a little bit too woo-woo and unusual, her mother is actually pretty cool, and the way she lives her life, be it in a dilapidated little apartment and an incredible lack of normalcy, is incredibly vibrant and full of true emotion, genuine creativity. As children, we often do not value what we have, prizing instead what is interior decorated, color coordinated, top of the line, as displayed on social media or TV. But that's not what life is about, most of the time, and not the way true life even is. And this is also one of the things Clara has to accept – that our lives and our own selves even are not always what we expect them to be. And maybe that's not such a bad thing after all?

It Talks About Loss And Change – In An Upbeat Way

...and not only that. I love it when MG books hide a deeper look at things, and the way you're supposed to work them out yourself because they won't be overexplained. The veneer of happy and bright sometimes hides serious problems children have to deal with emotionally – family breakups, changing your environment and lifestyle, standing up to authority and working out new ways to survive, or even thrive. This book was great at that – Clara is hard at work trying to pretend even to her own self that nothing is wrong, but it's plain obvious how much she misses her grandmother who had quite unexpectedly up and gone off to Florida, almost as if she didn't want to see them again. Clara must learn to live in a different environment, deal with the fact that despite her family being borderline destitute now, who she is doesn't change because of that. And she has to learn to accept life and learn to go with it. I think Clara does well.

I thank Penguin Random House Canada / Puffin Canada for giving me a free copy of Clara Voyant in exchange to my honest opinion. Receiving the book for free does not affect my opinion.