Ivy + Bean One big happy family

The second-grade best friends of Pancake Court, Ivy and Bean, return for an eleventh installment in which they consider what it means to be a spoiled child. Opinionated classmate Vanessa points out that Ivy is an only child and asserts that such children are usually spoiled. Though Bean defends Ivy (Bean could have bitten Vanessa on the ankle, but she didnt. She just said, Ivys not spoiled), Ivy takes the remark to heart. She tries many corrective measures, including giving away her clothes and asking her mom for a baby sister. At last, Bean helps Ivy see that though she is an only child, she is consistently unselfish and thoughtfulthe opposite of spoiled. The imaginative and somewhat rash problem-solving tactics of these two otherwise earnest, emotionally mature friends offer readers characters to love as well as energetic plot details and gags to laugh at. Blackalls black-and-white spot art deftly captures and builds on the characters distinct personalities and the storys humor while also creating breaks in the text for pausing and reflecting. This long-awaited (its been five years since the last installment) addition to the series has much to recommend for both longtime Ivy and Bean fans and new initiates. julie roach (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Irresistible 7-year-old protagonists Ivy and Bean are back for their 11th outing after a long break.The girls take up where they left off years ago, still participating in the type of childhood adventures that are both realistic and yet so whimsical that storytellers often overlook them. Ivy, the (slightly) quieter of the pair, decides that because she's an only child, she's in great danger of becoming spoiled. Extreme generositytrying to give away lots of her clothesbackfires. Instead, she and ever ebullient Bean decide to try to bring to life a baby doll after Ivy's mom pointedly refuses to provide a needed sister. When a cellphone charger they plug into the doll's mouth doesn't succeed in galvanizing her (but hilariously mimics the Frankenstein story), they try dancing and calling to the gods in the parkalso not quite a success but surely a spectacle. Blackall's numerous amusing black-and-white illustrations on nearly every page match perfectly with the spare, winsome text to make for an inviting presentation with plenty of good-humored action. Ivy and Bean present white, and their classmates are diverse. Short chapters, ample white space, and smart, interesting dialogue all combine to make this an easy choice for those newly transitioned to chapter books.Welcome back, Ivy and Bean! (Fiction. 6-9) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.