5 ALSO AVAILABLE: 4 5 IVY + BEAN 4 55 “The deliciousness is in the details here, with both girls drawn distinctly and with fl4air.” — Booklist, starred review * “. . . illustrations deftly capture the girls’ personalities and the tale’s humor. . . . Barrows’s narrative brims with sprightly dialogue.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review * “Readers are bound to embrace this spunky twosome and 5 eagerly anticipate their continuing tales of mischief and 4 mayhem.” —Kirkus R5eviews 4 IVY + BEAN BREAK THE FOSSIL RECORD 55 4 “This is a great chapter book for students who have recently crossed the independ5ent reader bridge.” —School Library Journal 4 5 “Just right.” —Kirkus Reviews 4 IVY + BEAN TAKE 55CARE OF THE BABYSITTER 4 5 4 “Early chapter-book readers will enjoy this.” 5 —School Library Journal 4 IVY + BEAN BOUND TO BE BAD 555 4 4 4 written by annie barrows + illustrated by sophie blackall For Esme, finally —A. B. For Ms. Wissot, who is the best kind of teacher —S. B. Text © 2006 by Annie Barrows. Illustrations © 2006 by Sophie Blackall. All rights reserved. Book design by Sara Gillingham. Typeset in Candida. The illustrations in this book were rendered in Chinese ink. ISBN 978-0-8118-4911-1 (pb) ISBN 978-0-8118-7652-0 (epub, mobi) Chronicle Books LLC 680 Second Street, San Francisco, California 94107 www.chroniclekids.com CONTENTS THE GYMNASTICS CLUB 6 THE OATH OF LIQUIDS 17 WHO’S THAT UGLY GUY? 27 THE PORTAL 41 ZUZU SPILLS THE BEANS 51 NO MORE NONSENSE 63 THE POTION SOLUTION 69 SNEAKY BEAN 79 NO SUCH THING 91 IN THE HAUNTED BATHROOM 100 EXPELLED 111 WHAT A GREAT DAY 122 THE GYMNASTICS CLUB One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten—wham! Bean crashed into the grass. “Ouch,” said Ivy, peeking through a hole in her sandwich. “Doesn’t that hurt?” 8 “No. I’m just dizzy,” said Bean. She sat up, and the playground began to tilt. Ugh. She lay down again. Now Emma stood up. She lifted her hands above her head, took a big breath, and began. She did nine good cartwheels before she fell on her head. “Are you all right?” Ivy asked Emma with her mouth full of peanut butter. “Sort of,” said Emma. Now it was Zuzu’s turn. Zuzu was the best cartwheeler in the Gymnastics Club. She was also the best backbender. She could do seven round-offs in a row. Nobody else could do even one. Zuzu pulled down her ruffled pink shirt and raised her hands. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve cartwheels, and still Zuzu landed on 9 her feet. Then she arched over backward. She flung her arms over her head and made a perfect back- bend. She looked like a turned-over pink teacup. Then she rose back up— boing—like a doll with elastic in its legs. “Wow,” said Ivy. Bean jumped up. She just had to do twelve cartwheels. “Stand back!” she yelled. “Wait,” said Zuzu. “What about Ivy? Aren’t you going to do a cart- wheel, Ivy?”