Illustrator: Sophie Blackall
Publisher: Chronicle Books (October 2012)
Independent Reading: Grades 2nd to 4th
Read Aloud: Grades 1st to 3rd
Fiction * Friendship * Camp
Description from GoodReads:
Bean's older sister, Nancy, is going to Girl Power 4-Ever Camp, where she will do Crafts and Music and First Aid and other secret things that Bean will never know about because girls have to be eleven to go to Girl Power 4-Ever Camp. Bean doesn't care. She doesn't want to go to camp. She wouldn't go even if they begged her. So ha. So ha ha. So-wait a second Bean and Ivy can make their own camp, their own better camp: Camp Flaming Arrow, where counselors Ivy and Bean will give a whole new meaning to Crafts, Music, First Aid, and hands-on learning
My thoughts on the book:
I can honestly say that with each installment of Ivy & Bean I have come to adore these two friends more. In Ivy & Bean Make the Rules, our two friends have decided to hold their own day camp since they aren't old enough to attend Girl Power 4-Ever Camp with Bean's older sister Nancy.
As I was reading the book, it made me realize that today it is so much harder for children just to gather together in a park and play. In many areas, children aren't allowed to leave their homes or yards and if at a park there would be so much adult supervision it would limit some of the freedom and the creativity that Ivy & Bean created in their make-believe camp. But I digress...
Bean develops an idea of starting their own camp which despite an attempt to model things after Nancy's Girl Power 4-Ever Camp seems to be uniquely Ivy & Bean. The two girls connect up with the visiting Franny and Harlan (siblings) and develop their own version of crafts, and nature study and even Women's History. Over the week, more and more children join in on the fun...or maybe I should say chaos. In the end, the reader can decide who had more fun - Nancy at real camp or Ivy & Bean at their made-up camp, Camp Flaming Arrow.
Yay to Annie Barrows for another great Ivy & Bean book. I look forward to more adventures from our creative friends.
Today is the first International Ivy and Bean Day! and the end of the nine week long Ivy and Bean Blog-A-Bration that also included huge giveaways and features of each of the other eight books in the series. Congratulations to The Grand Prize winner - Becky Wilson of Flint Hill Elementary School who entered at Sharpread blog!
Thank you Chronicle Books for organizing the blog-a-bration, and all the other pieces to this celebration.
Happy International Ivy & Bean Day - Thank you Chronicle for this video:
