The stories follow schoolgirl Clarice Bean and her challenges navigating the complex ethical, social and philosophical questions children deal with at school and at home, accompanied with friendship drama and mystery solving (inspired by Ruby Redfort of course).
"Clarice Bean,That's Me" was also a highly commended runner-up for the Kate Greenaway Medal, the annual British Library Association award for children's book illustration.
In the last book, she moves to San Francisco because call-me-Mol goes to California for a vacation, but finds a job and decides to stay there.
Clarice Bean describes Mrs. Wilberton as having a "honking goose voice" and "a big derriere".
Clarice describes Clem as Sadie Blanch, a fictional character from the Ruby Redfort series.
An important plot device is the Ruby Redfort collection, a series of fictional books in which Clarice Bean and Betty Moody frequently find inspiration.
There are nine books in the Ruby Redfort series: The fictional author is Patricia F Maplin Stacey, whom Betty actually meets in Russia, where she gets a Ruby Redfort book signed.
In another book, Clarice gets to be in a movie starring "Skyler Summer" as Ruby Redfort.
Lauren Child contracted to begin a real Ruby Redfort series in autumn 2011.