Ida B… and her plans to maximize fun, avoid disaster, and (possibly) save the world.

Ida B’s enthusiasm and love for life are contagious! This is not your typical paperback heroine who spends all day daydreaming about a boy asking her to a dance or worrying if her wardrobe is keeping her from being popular. Ida B. (and yes, the “B” is mandatory) embraces everyday to the fullest and takes charge of any problems she sees in her life.

Ida B. has been home-schooled since the second week of kindergarten, when both her and her parents decided she would be much happier at home with mama and daddy and the orchard and their dog, Rufus. She balances her time between her studies, listening to the wisdom of the trees (whom she affectionately gives names like Philomena and Jacques Cousteau), and sending messages on homemade sailboats down the brook on her family’s property, hoping to hear from people in Canada. Overall, it is a great life.

But when mama is diagnosed with cancer, Ida B.’s carefree spirit is crushed. It is extremely difficult for her to hear mama and daddy talking in hushed voices. Mama no longer has the energy to quiz on her spelling or to give her difficult word problems. Ida B. notices that no one in the family, even the dog, looks each other in the eye anymore.

And just when Ida B. doesn’t think life can get any more difficult, her parents decide they can no longer home school her. In the fourth grade, Ida B. must return to a brick and mortar school, which she refers to as the “Place of Slow but Sure Body-Cramping, Mind-Numbing, Fun-Killing Torture.” Although it is tough for the reader to watch their heroine navigate difficult family changes while facing a new school, classmates, and teacher, we always suspect that Ida B. always has “plans to maximize fun, avoid disaster, and (possibly) save the world.”

Recommending this book to children who have experienced terminal illness in their family and area dealing with the questions, anger and sadness that accompanies such life events could be tricky business. (I'll admit I shed tears thinking about a family member who battled leukemia.) But with that "warning," Katherine Hannigan’s novel is a true gem. This novel carries the timely theme of environmental awareness, with the Southern landscape becoming a character in itself. It is also great for librarians to have literature featuring a home-schooled child on-hand.

Hannigan, Katherine. (2004). Ida B… and her plans to maximize fun, avoid disaster, and (possibly) save the world. New York: Greenwillow Books. ISBN: 0-06-073024-2