Ivy and Bean
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
40 free Ivy and Bean trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Ivy and Bean are two seven-year-olds who were sure they would never like each other. One is quiet and full of ideas, the other is loud and always in motion, and together they turn an ordinary street into a place where ghosts, fossils, secret camps and unsolved mysteries seem entirely possible. The chapter books have carried millions of new readers from picture books to longer stories since 2006. This quiz follows the friends through the whole series, from the afternoon they first join forces against a big sister to the school career event of the final book. Expect questions on the plots, the neighbors and classmates, the author and illustrator behind the stories, and the live-action films. It is written for young readers who have just finished a book, and for the parents, teachers and librarians who read along. There are questions on book two, The Ghost That Had to Go, and on One Big Happy Family for anyone checking a reading assignment.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In the first Ivy and Bean book, what is Ivy, the quiet one full of ideas, training to become?
A witch
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.
Q 02Which street, which they snoop around for a homemade newspaper, is home to Ivy and Bean?
Pancake Court
Pancake Court is a cul-de-sac whose backyards and nosy neighbors fill story after story.
Q 03In Ivy and Bean: Doomed to Dance, which sea creatures are the friends cast as in an ocean-themed ballet?
Squids
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.
Q 04In Ivy and Bean: No News Is Good News, what do the girls want to buy with the ten dollars they need?
Cheese
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.
Q 05In Ivy and Bean and the Ghost That Had to Go, which school room does Ivy claim is haunted, thrilling her classmates?
The bathroom
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.
Q 06Who is Bean's bossy older sister, the target of the dancing spell in the first Ivy and Bean book?
Nancy
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.
Q 07Which streaming service adapted the Ivy and Bean books into hour-long live-action family films?
Netflix
Netflix optioned the books and planned each adaptation to run about an hour. Keslee Blalock plays Ivy and Madison Skye Validum plays Bean.
Q 08Which author of the Ivy and Bean books also co-wrote The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society?
Annie Barrows
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.
Q 09In Ivy and Bean Break the Fossil Record, what does Bean stuff into her mouth while chasing a world record?
Straws
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.
Q 10In Ivy and Bean: One Big Happy Family, a classmate says Ivy risks being spoiled because she is what?
An only child
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.
Q 11In the first Ivy and Bean book, what does Bean assume Ivy must be because she wears dresses and reads?
Boring
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.
Q 12What color are the long curls that quiet Ivy keeps under a sparkly headband in the Ivy and Bean books?
Red
Red curls and a dress mark out thoughtful Ivy, while Bean is the loud one, always ready for action.
Q 13In the third Ivy and Bean book, bones dug up behind Bean's house convince the girls they are the youngest what?
Paleontologists
Paleontologists is the title they claim after unearthing a pile of ancient bones behind Bean's house. The catch is that nobody believes them.
Q 21In Ivy and Bean and the Ghost That Had to Go, what is Ivy avoiding at recess when she invents the ghost?
Cartwheels
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.
Q 22In Ivy and Bean: Bound to Be Bad, whose picture inspires Ivy to try luring birds and even a wolf?
St. Francis
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.
Q 23In Ivy and Bean Make the Rules, what do the girls call the camp they invent to rival Girl Power 4-Ever?
Flaming Arrow
Q 14Which Science Fair theme has Ivy and Bean's classmates planting trees and holding their breath?
Global warming
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.
Q 15In Ivy and Bean Take the Case, which job does Bean take up after watching an old black-and-white movie?
Private investigator
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.
Q 16Which gadget, too costly for Ivy and Bean, does Herman the Treasure Hunter use in the final book?
A metal detector
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.
Q 17The publisher recommends Ivy and Bean to fans of Junie B. Jones and which other chapter-book heroine?
Ramona Quimby
Ramona Quimby is the comparison reviewers reach for too: another small girl whose big ideas keep colliding with an older sister.
Q 18Which Australian illustrator, based in Brooklyn, drew the pictures for every Ivy and Bean book?
Sophie Blackall
Sophie Blackall moved her family from Australia to New York in 2000 after winning a visa lottery, with no job waiting for her.
Q 19What is the name of the school, host of a Career Fair in the final book, that Ivy and Bean attend?
Emerson
Emerson is where both girls sit in the same class, and the building supplies plots from a Science Fair to a supposedly haunted room.
Q 20In Ivy and Bean Take Care of the Babysitter, what do the kids build from a giant mound of dirt?
A volcano
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.
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.
Q 24In Ivy and Bean Make the Rules, what do the girls fix to their shoe soles so they can tap dance?
Thumbtacks
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.
Q 25In Ivy and Bean Take the Case, what appears tied around a neighbor's chimney and grows longer daily?
A yellow rope
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.
Q 26In Ivy and Bean: One Big Happy Family, what does Ivy try to give away to prove she is not spoiled?
Her clothes
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.
Q 27Which Glee actress plays the scary principal in the film Ivy + Bean: The Ghost That Had to Go?
Jane Lynch
Jane Lynch plays Mrs. Noble, a principal so fearsome that the pupils picture her as a dragon.
Q 28Which sitcom star plays the ballet teacher Monsieur Joie in the film Ivy + Bean: Doomed to Dance?
Jesse Tyler Ferguson
Jesse Tyler Ferguson plays the pretentious instructor, who pushes the two awkward dancers off to the side.
Q 29Which relative began The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, the novel the Ivy and Bean author finished?
Her aunt
Her aunt, Mary Ann Shaffer, fell ill before the manuscript was ready, so her niece completed it. The novel later became a film.
Q 30Which animal does the Ivy and Bean illustrator hide in every book she illustrates, in honor of a famous novel?
A whale
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.