The First Issue

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a Richmond conference on writing children's books.  While I was there, a literary agent from NYC mentioned the Ivy & Bean chapter books as if they were a household name.  Well, they weren't a household name in this household, then anyway.  A couple of days later, I was at the library and happened to see an Ivy & Bean book put on display, so I scooped it up -- Ivy & Bean:  Doomed to Dance.  I read it that night after Sam (finally) went to bed.  It was hilariously cute, and I read it in one sitting.  However, I still didn't think that Sam would like it because of two things:

1.  The main characters are girls.
2.  The main characters who are girls take dance class.

So the next morning I was telling Sam about the funny parts and saying that I thought his cousin Rose would really like it.  Much to my surprise, he said, "Will you read it to me?"  So I did.  We almost missed the bus trying to finish it, but it was well worth it.  Then I raced back to the library and got two more Ivy & Bean books out.  We whizzed right through them as well, laughing all the way.

Needless to say, I put a few more on reserve at the library and picked them up yesterday.  Last night Sam picked the first one to read, Ivy & Bean:  No News Is Good News.  It is so hilarious!  The girls (Ivy and Bean) are dying to have Baby Bell cheese (which they call Belldeloon) in their lunch.  All of their friends have it and make cool things out of the red wax, including fake boogers.  (They don't really eat the cheese itself -- or the fake boogers for that matter.)

However, Ivy and Bean's mothers refuse to buy the cheese for them because it is too pricey.  Nevertheless the girls are determined to buy it for themselves but need a way to raise money.  Bean's father said he wrote a newspaper to raise money when he was a kid.  He called it The Explosion and charged $.25.  Well, Ivy & Bean borrowed his idea and started their own newspaper.  They called it The Pancake Flipper since they both live on Pancake Court.  And what do you know?  They sold it up and down the street with great success.

Little did I know after I left Sam's room last night that he and his little mind were putting together their very own newspaper, too.  Since our neighborhood is called Salisbury, they decided to call it "The Bare."  In sound-spelling terms, that means, "The Berry."  Pretty clever actually.  It reads, "This is the first adshin of the Bare" with "wethr" listed below as sunny skies.

Fast forward to this morning -- it was 6:15 AM, and Daddy Mac had gone to the gym.  Sam was wide awake (of course), and I was totally passed out (of course.)  Sam came wandering into my room and was rambling on, but I was too incoherent to know what the heck he was talking about. (There are many times I am too incoherent to know what the heck he is talking about even when I'm awake.)  Then he wandered on out.

About 15 minutes later, he wandered back in.  He finally succeeding in waking me up by announcing,  "I just went to the McCormicks and the Behringers!"

"WHAT?!" I asked/shrieked.

"You told me it was OK when I asked you," he answered calmly.

"WHAT?!" I repeated, too groggy to say anything else.  Was this a weird bad dream?

"I got 50 cents!"

"FOR WHAT?"

"For the newspaper!  And then Mr. Behringer walked me home."

That is when I full-on cringed.  Jeff Behringer, dedicated father of three young kids, had to walk Sam home at 6:30 AM after forking over 25 hard-earned cents for The Bare?!  Nooooooooo!  Say it isn't so.  Ah, but it was so.  It was very much so.

The phone rang which I was still too stupefied/horrified to answer.  Alas, Mrs, Behringer left a kind concerned message.  "Did you now that Sam has been walking around the neighborhood at 6:30 in the morning selling -- newspapers?"  I could tell she was wondering if Daddy Mac and I had died during the night.

Daddy Mac did almost die when he got home from the gym  and I filled him in on the goings-on.  After the shock wore off, we were talking about how hard it had rained in the middle of the night.  Now it was Sam's turn to be horrified, "But I wrote in The Bare that it was supposed to be sunny!"  Sounds like the first edition needs to make its first retraction.  Welcome to the print business, Sam!

We're really looking forward to reading the rest of the Ivy & Bean book tonight.  I sure hope it has a happy ending.


LibbY