Beany and the Meany

My grandaughter and I recently read this book together. She is seven and loved the book; both the story and the character of Beany. Beany is a great kid who faces a typical school dilemma with thoughtfulness, patience, courage and a sense of humor. When her best friend "deserts" her, she does not become whiny or grouchy and doesn't complain to her parents. When Beany is forced to do a school project with a classmate who she is not comfortable with, she does her very best to succeed and she does! The ending is a happy surprise. We are looking forward to reading all the Beany stories.

As the parent of a 7-year-old girl, I recently discovered Beany when my school teacher wife brought one of the books home. Since then I have read several with my daughter, and plan to purchase all books in the series. There are many similar books available to kids in this age group (my daughter calls them "chapter books"), but the Beany series are the best for our family at present. They can be read by good readers ages 7 and up, but are also short enough an adult can read them to a child. Beany's problems are timeless - reading this title will bring back memories from childhood. The story conveys Beany's experience of being paired up with a difficult kid for a science fair project. Watching her friends Carol Ann and Stacy enjoying their project together, Beany feels understandably left out. My daughter had just experienced a similar problem with kids down the street, and I think reading the book helped put the issue in perspective. The character Beany has pathos, a quality enhanced by the author's skill as well as by illustrations that seamlessly convey parts of the story. The book also subtly conveys a decent science lesson within an entertaining story line - bravo! Ms. Wojciechowski has an eye for a child's experiences, something I could feel as I talked the book over with my daughter. As a parent, I am grateful to the author for providing such a morally centered and meaningful read for my child.

Two big things happen in Beany's classroom on the same day: a new girl named Stacy joins the class, and everyone teams up to do science projects. Beany's best friend, Carol Ann, pairs up with the new girl; Beany gets stuck with Kevin. Beany knows what she likes: her family, her teacher, her best friend Carol Ann, and her stuffed moose Jingle Bell, campouts, and her big brother, sometimes. She knows what she doesn't like: Kevin. She think he's a bully and he thinks she's a nuisance. When they finally start working on the experiment, Beany learns that Kevin is smarter than she thought he was, and that he really likes science. Beany and the Meany is a simple, cute story about getting along and working together. This story could have been heavy on jealousy and misjudging new classmates, but it wasn't, and that was nice to see. Instead of ditching her best friend for the new girl, it is made apparent from the beginning that Carol Ann was the "special helper" in the classroom that week, so she was assigned to help Stacy out. The two naturally became fast friends, as kids that age are so likely to do, and they spend a lot of time working on their own project together, but Carol Ann never outright ignores Beany nor vice-versa. Beany feels left out, but she is more sad than she is jealous. Of course, by the book's close, Beany has two new friends in addition to her best friend, and all is well.

Susan Wojciechowski's Beany And The Meany is peppered with black and white drawings by Susanna Natti as it tells of a science project which sticks Beany with the class bully Kevin. How can Beany save her project and work with the meanest boy in school? A realistic dilemma will attract readers in elementary grades 3-5.