March Book Review: Ivy and Bean

This month's Mommy and Me Book Club book is Ivy and Bean by Annie Barrows.  It's the first of nine books in the Ivy and Bean series.  It's the story of two unlikely friends and how a plot to get revenge on Bean's sister brings them together.  The whole thing takes place in the course of an afternoon.  (". . . and by the end of the movie [clap!], you're friends!")  The story is thin and the characters are a little sassy, but the illustrations by Sophie Blackall are lovely and the writing is quite funny.  Sample paragraph:

"The good news was that there was a gate on the other side of Ruby and Trevor's yard.  The bad news was that it led to the really gross dog-poopy yard.  Bean and Ivy walked on tiptoes, but still Ivy stepped in some.  Fester, the dog whose poop it was, came out to sniff them.  He was a nice dog, and he seemed sorry that his yard was so disgusting."

It didn't leave us with much to discuss.  We talked about how you can't tell what someone is like just by looking at them and that maybe Bean could have been nicer to her sister.  It was a great book for her age and reading level (age 7, 1st grade) and she's excited to read the rest of the books in the series.

Ivy has curly red hair, wears headbands, and reads lots of books so I curled Chloe's hair and took her to Barnes and Noble for our book club meeting.  She'd never been to a Barnes and Noble (Not that she could remember, at least.  There aren't any big bookstores nearby.) and it blew her mind.  She saw so many books that she wanted to read.  We had a treat at the cafe and then took a look at all of the books.  Cheesecake AND books?  She never wanted to leave.