Ivy and Bean

“Ivy did seem like such a nice girl. Even from across the street, she looked nice. But nice, Bean knew, is another word for boring.”

The repetition of “nice” reinforces Barrows’s characterization of Ivy as a “nice girl.” The narrator uses “nice” three times, but it has no impact on Bean, who continues to view the laudable term as representing “boring.”

“Ivy was always reading a big book. Bean never read big books. Reading made her jumpy.”

Barrows uses juxtaposition to create ostensible differences between the girls. Her narrator puts Ivy’s love for large books beside Bean’s abstention from them to present their dissimilarity. The term “jumpy” is ironic. The word suggests reading makes Bean anxious, but the illustration indicates that books make Bean physically unable to stay still.

“So for weeks and weeks, Bean didn't play with Ivy. But one day something happened that changed her mind.”

Barrows quickly moves time along. She introduces Bean and Ivy, and then she skips “weeks and weeks” before she brings them together. As the quote ends in Chapter 1, the first chapter ends on a cliffhanger. Here, Barrows establishes anticipation about discovering what makes Bean change her mind.