Ivy + Bean by Annie Barrows and Sophie Blackall (illustrator)

From the jacket: “Meet Ivy and Bean, two friends who never meant to like each other. The moment they saw each other, Bean and Ivy knew they would never be friends. But when Bean plays a trick on her sister and has to hide — quick! — Ivy comes to the rescue with her wand, some face paint, and a bucket of worms. Will they end up in trouble? Maybe. Will they have fun? Of course!

My take: A cute story about two seven-year-old neighbors. Impish Bean is non-stop energy. Ivy seems more restrained, with her nose always in a book. And neither girl is interested in befriending the other, particularly because their mothers recommend it as a good idea. (Sound familiar, Mum?) When Bean’s prank on older sister Nancy goes awry, leaving Bean on the hunt for a way to leave the scene of the crime, Ivy comes to her aid and initiates Bean into the ways of magic. Their worlds will never be the same.

Perfect for the preschool set as a long read-aloud or for young elementary school readers who are moving on to chapter books. This is the first in a series.

Pages: 120

Oops. I meant to finish working on the last item yesterday while we were traveling, but then airport misadventures meant that Rudi and I took entirely different routes to Salt Lake and the computer went with him. By the time we both arrived, I was pretty knackered and forgot computers existed, let alone that I had a blog post to finish.

But here, a day late, are three beautiful things from the past week:

1. Taking down the Christmas tree means the living room feels spacious.

2. “I’m speaking duck,” a boy tells his parents at the Georgetown park.

3. Rudi and I messed up our flight yesterday morning. Rudi overslept slightly and I caused us to leave the house late, which meant that we did not have the time necessary to recover from subsequent bad decision-making caused by a lack of sleep. So when our plane left, we were not on it. But every single Southwest person we talked to yesterday — and we conversed with a bunch of them — were pleasant and helpful and kind. I don’t know what sort of training they do with their workers — or if they make special efforts only to hire exceptional people in the first place — but it’s really working, and these two tired, sheepish, stressed out travelers were remarkably grateful.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week?