Second-grade best friends Ivy and Bean beg for ballet lessons, then, when they are cast as squids in their first recital, scheme to find a way out of what seems to be boring, hard, and potentially embarrassing.
After watching a movie about a detective on the television, Bean decides to set up shop as a private investigator--and she and Ivy start looking for mysteries to solve.
When classmate Vanessa insists that all single children are spoiled, Ivy wonders whether she can become "unspoiled" by giving away all her clothes at school (which does not go over well with her teacher or parents)--but ultimately decides that all she needs to accomplish her goal is a little sister.
Collects three novels by Sophie Blackall that feature Ivy and Bean, two second grade girls, describing their adventures attempting to avoid a mean babysitter, befriend animals, and escape a potentially embarrassing ballet recital.
Ivy and Bean decide to be good, kind, and pure of thought in the hopes that the wild animals will befriend them, but when their plan doesn't work, they decide sometimes it's good to be a little bad.
