40 Fun Facts About Ivy and Bean

In the first Ivy and Bean book, what is Ivy, the quiet one full of ideas, training to become?

A witch is what Ivy plans to be, and her half-learned dancing spell is aimed at Bean's bossy older sister. Plotting to use it turns two wary neighbors into best friends.

Which street, which they snoop around for a homemade newspaper, is home to Ivy and Bean?

Pancake Court is a cul-de-sac whose backyards and nosy neighbors fill story after story.

In Ivy and Bean: Doomed to Dance, which sea creatures are the friends cast as in an ocean-themed ballet?

Squids, and friendly ones at that, are the parts they are handed in a ballet the teacher made up. The girls had signed up expecting leaping, kicking and cool costumes.

In Ivy and Bean: No News Is Good News, what do the girls want to buy with the ten dollars they need?

Cheese is the goal: two bags of a lowfat brand sold in a just-for-you serving size. To pay for it they peek through windows and sell what they learn to the neighbors.

In Ivy and Bean and the Ghost That Had to Go, which school room does Ivy claim is haunted, thrilling her classmates?

The bathroom used by the girls is where Ivy places her ghost, and the whole school is thrilled until the teachers find out. Then the two friends have to make it leave, fast.

Who is Bean's bossy older sister, the target of the dancing spell in the first Ivy and Bean book?

Nancy is the sister Bean loves to torment, and running from her is how Bean first ends up beside Ivy. A later book leaves her in charge as Bean's babysitter.

Which streaming service adapted the Ivy and Bean books into hour-long live-action family films?

Netflix optioned the books and planned each adaptation to run about an hour. Keslee Blalock plays Ivy and Madison Skye Validum plays Bean.

Which author of the Ivy and Bean books also co-wrote The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society?

Annie Barrows spent years as a book editor before writing the first story, at a time when her seven-year-old had run out of good books to hear.

In Ivy and Bean Break the Fossil Record, what does Bean stuff into her mouth while chasing a world record?

Straws were the plan, but she fell some 217 short of the 257 she was aiming for. A record book opened out of sheer boredom had started the craze.

In Ivy and Bean: One Big Happy Family, a classmate says Ivy risks being spoiled because she is what?

An only child is bound to end up spoiled, or so the classmate says, and the remark sends Ivy looking for a baby sister. Bean backs her friend through every scheme that follows.

In the first Ivy and Bean book, what does Bean assume Ivy must be because she wears dresses and reads?

Boring is Bean's verdict on the girl in the sparkly headband, right up until Ivy rescues her from trouble. After that the pair are inseparable.

What color are the long curls that quiet Ivy keeps under a sparkly headband in the Ivy and Bean books?

Red curls and a dress mark out thoughtful Ivy, while Bean is the loud one, always ready for action.

In the third Ivy and Bean book, bones dug up behind Bean's house convince the girls they are the youngest what?

Paleontologists is the title they claim after unearthing a pile of ancient bones behind Bean's house. The catch is that nobody believes them.

Which Science Fair theme has Ivy and Bean's classmates planting trees and holding their breath?

Global warming is the assignment, and every project is meant to cool the planet down. Ivy and Bean weigh up explosions and ice cubes before settling on something very quiet.

In Ivy and Bean Take the Case, which job does Bean take up after watching an old black-and-white movie?

Private investigator is the job she copies from her mother's favorite noir film, a movie that was not on the family's approved list. Ivy signs on as her assistant.

Which gadget, too costly for Ivy and Bean, does Herman the Treasure Hunter use in the final book?

A metal detector is out of reach, so the visitor to the school career event suggests shovels and intuition instead. Soon the whole class is digging holes.

The publisher recommends Ivy and Bean to fans of Junie B. Jones and which other chapter-book heroine?

Ramona Quimby is the comparison reviewers reach for too: another small girl whose big ideas keep colliding with an older sister.

Which Australian illustrator, based in Brooklyn, drew the pictures for every Ivy and Bean book?

Sophie Blackall moved her family from Australia to New York in 2000 after winning a visa lottery, with no job waiting for her.

What is the name of the school, host of a Career Fair in the final book, that Ivy and Bean attend?

Emerson is where both girls sit in the same class, and the building supplies plots from a Science Fair to a supposedly haunted room.

In Ivy and Bean Take Care of the Babysitter, what do the kids build from a giant mound of dirt?

A volcano is the project, and Bean is called home right in the middle of the eruption. Her parents are going out and leaving her older sister in charge.

In Ivy and Bean and the Ghost That Had to Go, what is Ivy avoiding at recess when she invents the ghost?

Cartwheels were beyond her, so a spooky story pulled everyone's attention away from her gymnastics. The tale soon spirals into schoolyard mayhem that only a ceremony can end.

In Ivy and Bean: Bound to Be Bad, whose picture inspires Ivy to try luring birds and even a wolf?

St. Francis is the model, and Ivy stands with her arms outstretched trying to be pure of heart. When that fails, the girls decide Bean should be as bad as possible so Ivy can reform her.

In Ivy and Bean Make the Rules, what do the girls call the camp they invent to rival Girl Power 4-Ever?

Flaming Arrow is their answer to the camp Bean's older sister attends, which only takes girls of eleven. Their versions of Crafts, Dance and First Aid are considerably wilder.

In Ivy and Bean Make the Rules, what do the girls fix to their shoe soles so they can tap dance?

Thumbtacks do the job, and the dancing happens on top of an old washtub for extra noise. It is louder than any routine taught at a real camp.

In Ivy and Bean Take the Case, what appears tied around a neighbor's chimney and grows longer daily?

A yellow rope trails from Dino's chimney onto his lawn and lengthens each day, yet no adult seems to notice. Even a midnight stakeout fails to catch whoever keeps tying it.

In Ivy and Bean: One Big Happy Family, what does Ivy try to give away to prove she is not spoiled?

Her clothes are the first thing to go, an act of extreme generosity that promptly backfires. The teacher has to explain why handing everything over is no cure.

Which Glee actress plays the scary principal in the film Ivy + Bean: The Ghost That Had to Go?

Jane Lynch plays Mrs. Noble, a principal so fearsome that the pupils picture her as a dragon.

Which sitcom star plays the ballet teacher Monsieur Joie in the film Ivy + Bean: Doomed to Dance?

Jesse Tyler Ferguson plays the pretentious instructor, who pushes the two awkward dancers off to the side.

Which relative began The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, the novel the Ivy and Bean author finished?

Her aunt, Mary Ann Shaffer, fell ill before the manuscript was ready, so her niece completed it. The novel later became a film.

Which animal does the Ivy and Bean illustrator hide in every book she illustrates, in honor of a famous novel?

A whale swims somewhere in each of her books as a tribute to Moby-Dick. Her first book for adults grew out of a blog about missed connections between strangers.

Which scary prop, aimed at Bean's sister, did an editor make the author cut from the first Ivy and Bean draft?

A voodoo doll of the older sister was in the earliest version, but the editor ruled it too frightening for young readers. The author says she rewrote the story about six times.

Which grumpy Ivy and Bean grown-up did the author base on a pale, silent caretaker who scared her as a girl?

Mrs. Trantz owes her chill to May, who looked after an old mansion down the street, plus a few mean teachers. She was only added when the first draft proved too short.

In Ivy and Bean Break the Fossil Record, which ornament of her sister's does Bean try to shatter by screaming?

A glass octopus survives her loudest scream, one more record attempt gone wrong. Only then does she join Ivy in digging up the yard.

In the film Ivy + Bean: The Ghost That Had to Go, what does Bean cut from her sleeping sister at night?

A lock of hair from an enemy is what the girls are after, and the big sister wakes in fright to find an intruder in her room. The adventure ends with a flood and a punishment.

The Ivy and Bean author says she owns a very old spell book like Ivy's, written in which language?

French is her excuse for never showing it to the young fans who ask, along with the claim that it is a secret. One spell in it, she says, calls for two dead frogs.

Which subject did the Ivy and Bean author study after an English class scared her off literature?

Medieval history won her over, especially the saints who stood on top of pillars for years. She went on to edit a couple of hundred books before writing one herself.

On the Ivy and Bean author's website, Bean's museum treasure is a sock she thinks belonged to which president?

Abraham Lincoln's supposed sock is so valuable that visitors must pay an extra nickel to see it. The museum is planned for Ivy's basement, since Bean's is full of stuff.

In Ivy and Bean Take the Case, whose daily two-hour nap is one of the first mysteries Bean solves?

The letter carrier and that long daily snooze are an early case, along with what lies under the cement lids in every lawn. The other kids stay unimpressed until a real puzzle turns up.

How did the Ivy and Bean author and illustrator mainly work together before finally meeting around the fifth book?

By email was how words and pictures crossed between California and New York for the early books. The illustrator says the pair first met in person around book five.

In Ivy and Bean Take Care of the Babysitter, which part of Bean's house do the girls explore to dodge her sister?

The attic turns out to be as exciting as the neighborhood dirt-pile project Bean was dragged away from. Evading her sister up there becomes the afternoon's game.