By Annie Barrows, Sophie Blackall, Illustrator, Chronicle Books, $14.99, 128 pages
All the second grade students at Emerson School must create a project for the science fair. With a global warming theme, best friends Ivy and Bean team up to create something unusual. Annie Barrows brings fans Ivy and Bean: What’s the Bid Idea?, the seventh book in a series about best friends and what they can accomplish together. All the other kids seem to have great ideas – Zuzu and Emma want to plant trees to increase oxygen levels and Eric is making a litterbug-eating robot. What will Ivy and Bean do? They both want to win the Certificate of Scientific Achievement.
This story is great for beginning chapter book readers. Extend reading comprehension by having kids read chapter titles before reading the chapter to hypothesize what might be discussed. When they finish the chapter, review to see if the guess was correct.
Sophie Blackall’s illustrations bring Ivy and Bean’s world to life. She captures what it’s like to be young and excited about science. The Ivy and Bean series appears on many “Must Read” book lists. One main message the book shares with readers is that even kids can create big ideas to help our planet.
Reviewed by Kathryn Franklin