Ivy and Bean: What's the Big Idea?

Annie Barrows · ★★★★

I'm still working through the series with my daughter and this one is written in a slightly different register. For so many of the entries, the girls have been preoccupied with personal ambitions. Bean is always in search of a status that will erase her feelings of inadequacy (seemingly stemming from an undiagnosed learning disability) and Ivy typically wants to find her way to some kind of magic in the world by gaining an extraordinary skill. This novel begins with the girls wanting to solve global warming for similar reasons but this motivation because preamble for a survey of child-like ideas on how to solve the problem. It ends with a scene rather uncharacteristic of our titular duo - a mature and wise interaction with adults that carry the day. Though I was a little put off by the shift in tone, I did appreciate the way Barrows created a space for children to think about and learn about global warming. My daughter, on the other hand, was thrilled with the book. So the right audience was satisfied and I just need to catch up. Particularly interesting in this entry is an afterword containing a lesson on the current state of global warming solutions and where kids might be more helpful than adults in finding a way to help the world.