Ivy and Bean: What's the Big Idea? Read Online Free Page B

energy!”
    â€œThat’s great, girls,” said Ms. Aruba-Tate. “I’ll be excited to see that.”
    â€œMe too,” muttered Ivy.

    That afternoon at Bean’s house, Ivy was the lookout. That meant she stood outside the kitchen door, watching for Bean’s mom. If Bean’s mom came along, Ivy was supposed to fall on the floor and screech.
    Inside the kitchen, Bean was standing on the counter. She was looking through the cupboards, trying to find rice. No luck. She wished she had said she was going to make chocolate chip energy. She knew where the chocolate chips were.
    Crackers, more crackers, walnuts, ugly dried lumps she had never seen before, oatmeal . . . rice! Bean grabbed a handful and stuffed the package back on the shelf. “Got it!” she whisper-shouted to Ivy.
    Ivy zipped into the kitchen. Bean jumped to the floor and held out her hand. There it was.A bunch of rice. There was no way they were going to get a Certificate of Scientific Achievement for rice. If only she had kept her mouth shut. “What the heck are we going to do with this?” she said.
    Ivy looked at the grains, and her eyes got narrow. “There was this lady,” she began.
    â€œWho?” Bean interrupted.
    â€œLisa Something,” said Ivy. “She was a scientist. I read about her in my
Famous Women of Science
book. She said you could get energy by breaking stuff into bits.”
    â€œCool!” said Bean. “Why don’t we just break some glasses, then?”
    Ivy frowned. “Not those kind of bits. Tiny bits. In the book, she said atoms, which are really tiny bits, but I bet it would work with rice, too. She said there was lots of energy inside tiny things, once you broke them.”
    It was a weird idea. When Bean broke stuff, it just lay there, broken. It didn’t start jumping around energetically.
    Bean looked at the rice in her hand. It didn’t seem like there could be anything inside rice except more rice, but it was worth a try. “I’ll go get some hammers.”

Grand Slam
    Bean thought her mom might not be happy if they hammered rice on the dining room table, so she and Ivy went outside. They found a board in the garage and laid it down on the grass. Bean and Ivy each took a grain of rice and set it on the wood. Then they slammed it with their hammers as hard as they could.
    Cool. Rice dust.
    They set out two more grains of rice. Slam! More rice dust.
    Slam! Slam!
Slam!
    The board leaped up and flipped over, spilling rice dust into the lawn. “Hey! Did you see that board jump?” said Bean. “That’s energy for sure!”
    â€œAnd no pollution,” said Ivy. “Let’s do it again!”
    â€œIt’s a science experiment! We
have
to do it again,” yelled Bean, lifting her hammer over her head.
    â€œDon’t tell me this is another dorky solution for global warming,” said Nancy. She and Mischa stood over them in the grass.
    â€œNone of your beeswax,” said Bean.
    â€œWe’re making clean energy,” Ivy said at the same time. Bean shook her head. Now they were in for it.
    â€œNo offense, but you guys are totally lame,” giggled Mischa.
    Bean could have banged Mischa’s toe with the hammer, but she didn’t. Ivy was talking. “Don’t you care about global warming?” she asked Mischa.

    â€œBor-ing!” said Mischa. “I’m, like, if I hear about global warming one more time, I’m gonna scream.”
    â€œDon’t you care about the polar bears?” asked Bean.
    Mischa shrugged. “Not really.”
    â€œDon’t you care about nature?” asked Ivy.
    Mischa rolled her eyes. “Bor-
ing
,” she said.
    â€œWhat?” asked Ivy.
    â€œCamping and all that,” said Mischa, shaking her head. “Totally boring.”
    â€œWhat
do
you like?” asked Ivy.
    â€œShopping!” said Mischa.
    â€œAnd Harky,” added Nancy,