Ivy and Bean: No News Is Good News by Annie Barrows
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Probably my personal favorite in this goofy chapter book series, No News is Good News sees Ivy and Bean jealous of their friends at lunch because everyone else has Lowfat Belladoona Cheese in a Just-for-you Serving Size … but that’s not important. What’s important is that the cheese comes wrapped in red wax that can be modeled into all sorts of shapes.
Their attempts to pester their parents into buying them the cheese come to naught, so with the help of Bean’s well-meaning but somewhat clueless father, they hatch a plan to sell a homemade newspaper that they create by spying on the neighbors. Hi-jinks ensue.
Barrows’s books are well-crafted enough that, though meant for children, they are accessible to the adult reader, and it is likely the adults who will best understand (and be able to predict the outcome of) the humorous situations Ivy and Bean get themselves into, whereas children are more likely to read this as an adventure story or comedy. For the adult, this is probably a half-hour read, tops.
