Every so often, at my book club, I choose a popular, internationally loved book. We’ve read The Rise of the Earth Dragon, The Absent Author, The Sheep-Pig … and now, we’ll read Ivy + Bean.
The enemies to friends trope is always fun. Ivy and Bean never meant to like each other. In fact, Bean is quite sure she has enough friends. She doesn’t need another one, especially not someone who seems as nice as Ivy. She knows only too well that nice = boring. But when Bean decides to play a trick on her sister, she realises that Ivy is not as nice as she seems. And that’s a good thing.
Funny, silly and full of action, Ivy and Bean is perfect to read with a bunch of seven- and eight-year-olds!
Predicting a story
Before we start reading the book, I’ll show the children a video trailer and ask them to imagine what the story is about. I know that some of the children will have read the book already, so I’ll take this activity further with a story worksheet. I’ll tell them the beginning of a story and then, based on the pictures I show them, I’ll ask them to make up the rest.
Magic
Ivy wants to be a witch. She has her wand, her spell-book, everything. It’s the perfect prompt for us to invent some magic of our own! I love asking children to imagine that things around them are magical. What if their pencil was magical? Or their chair? What magic can they do?
If we have the time, we’ll also try to do some craft work where we make magical wands of our own.
Puzzles
One of the fun things about introducing a popular book to my book club is the number of resources I can find online. From quizzes to worksheets, discussion questions and crossword puzzles, there’s a range of stuff that people have created and shared. Waiting to use some of them at my book club!
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