Ivy and Bean Make the Rules
Written by Annie Barrow
Illustrated by Sophie Blackall
Hooray for Ivy and Bean! The latest book in the series has Bean feeling left out as her sister Nancy goes to camp. At Girl Power 4-ever, she gets to do so many cool things. Bean has to sit at home. Mom tells her she can go to the park by herself, if that helps. It doesn’t. But when Ivy comes over, Bean sees that they can make their own camp, a better camp, because they can do anything they want. Ivy’s mom got new curtains so they use the old ones to make a tent (with the help of duct tape). They make up a great name: Camp Flaming Arrow. They set about doing camp things – like crafts. A friendship bracelet craft turns into an escape trick as the strings get wrapped around both arms of both girls. They have so much fun that some kids visiting their grandmother join them. The nature study has them searching for the dangerous Komodo dragon which attracts another boy who is bored of soccer camp. At the end of the week, Bean had way more fun than Nancy.
What a delight! Just when Bean thinks she is too young to do something interesting, she and her friend go far beyond expectations. It is a tribute to how creative little kids can be. The action unfolds in a logical way in spite of the outlandish things that they think of. This would be a good class read aloud for both second or third grade and a good independent read for third grade. One suggested literacy activity would be to list what Bean did at her camp and compare it to what Nancy did at hers and put the information in a chart. There is an Ivy and Bean website: (http://www.anniebarrows.com/ivyandbean/) where you can take the babysitter test and find craft ideas.
TITLE: Ivy and Bean Make the Rules- AUTHOR: Annie Barrow
- ILLUSTRATOR: Sophie Blackall
- PUBLISHER: Chronicle, 2012
- REVIEWER: Risa Brown
- EDITION: Hardcover, 127 p.
- ISBN: 978-1-4521-0295-5
