Homeschool Reading · Literature

Ivy and Bean

by Annie Barrows · a homeschool reading guide

Best for

Grades 1–3 (book 1 of a favourite series)

Reading level

580L Lexile® measure

Subject

Literature (chapter book · friendship)

On Chalky

10 modules with personalized comprehension questions

Use this book for

• Literature (core): A real character study at chapter-book size: two girls who are sure they won't like each other, and the afternoon that proves them wrong.
• Reading skills (core): Comprehension with inference in it — the book never says the girls were wrong about each other; the reader has to notice.
• Character & discussion (tie-in): Bean judges Ivy as boring; Ivy has a bucket of worms and a spell to cast. Deciding who someone is before you know them is a mistake worth discussing at seven.

The book

Bean is loud, muddy, and allergic to boredom; Ivy next door is quiet, tidy, and always reading — so obviously they'll never be friends, right up until Bean needs an escape route and Ivy turns out to know magic.

Published in 2006, Ivy and Bean began one of the most reliably loved early series in the elementary years, and the first book earns the loyalty: Annie Barrows writes real, flawed, funny girls rather than lessons in friendship shapes, and the plot — a prank, a getaway, a spell involving worms — runs on child logic that children recognise as their own. The quiet joke of the book is that everyone, including the reader, misjudges Ivy. Noticing that is genuine literary inference, delivered by comedy.

Why homeschoolers reach for it

• Children ask for book two. The series is long and the first book is a hook. A reader mid-series has solved the motivation problem for a month of school days.
• Inference, played for laughs. The girls' first impressions of each other are wrong, and the book shows it rather than says it. Catching the gap between what characters believe and what's true is the grade 2–3 skill.
• Two ways to be a girl, both honoured. Wild Bean and bookish Ivy are equals — the book takes no side. Readers of either temperament find themselves respected in it.
• Short chapters, real momentum. At 580L with generous illustrations, it stretches a newly fluent reader without defeating them — the sweet spot after the first chapter books.

Reading skills it builds

On Chalky, every module ends with comprehension questions written from the book's own text, each exercising a specific skill aligned to the Common Core reading standards for grade 1.

• Evidence-based analysis (CCSS RL.1.1): How do we know Bean misjudged Ivy? Find the moment it turns
• Theme & objective summary (CCSS RL.1.2): What the book says about first impressions, child-said
• Narrative element analysis (CCSS RL.1.3): A prank, an escape, a spell — how one leads to the next
• Vocabulary & word impact (CCSS RL.1.4): 'Dainty' — the word Bean uses as an insult, and why
• Text structure & development (CCSS RL.1.5): How the chapters trade between Bean's plan and Ivy's
• Point of view & perspective (CCSS RL.1.6): Ivy from Bean's window, then Ivy up close — not the same girl

If your state asks you to document reading instruction, this is the record: which book, which skills, which standard each aligns with, kept automatically as your child reads.

Running it as a unit

On Chalky, Ivy and Bean runs ten modules — about two weeks at 15 minutes a day, open-and-go: the modules are already sequenced, so there is nothing to plan the night before. It follows naturally after the grade 1 plan's chapter books. A rhythm, not a rulebook:

1. Week 1 — read and keep score. A module a day. Keep a two-line list: what Bean thinks of Ivy, what turns out to be true. The gap between the columns is the book's engine — watch it close.
2. Week 2 — finish and retell both ways. Finish the modules, then ask for the story twice: once as Bean would tell it, once as Ivy would. Same events, two tellings — that's point of view, performed.
3. Close — the neighbour question. 'Have you ever decided about someone before you knew them?' The book has done the setup; the honest conversation it invites is yours.

Pairs well with

• Beezus and Ramona — 500L · another pair who collide and love
• Henry and Mudge: The First Book — 450L · the step before, if this feels big
• Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing — 500L · sibling comedy, one shelf up

Start your reading comprehension curriculum on Chalky

Standards references describe alignment with the Common Core State Standards for Reading, grade 1; homeschool requirements vary by state, and this page is a record of instruction, not legal advice.