The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work! And her nonsolution results in a conclusion that will madden adults but that is wisely, perfectly childlike. As always, Barrows’ keen understanding of children yields scenarios that are right on the money: Bean cheerfully watches her mother’s favorite noir classic and gleans only the details her mother would rather she not have noticed she sets and resets a kitchen timer four times in order to wake up at midnight. Whoever-ties-the-rope involve lots of shared speculation and a midnight stakeout with loyal Ivy…but no perp. Incredibly, each day it lengthens, sprawling around the cul-de-sac and evidently evading the notice of every adult there.

Then a real mystery arises: A bright yellow rope appears, tied around Dino’s chimney and trailing onto his lawn. Bean solves a couple of mysteries-what’s under the cement lids in all the lawns, why the letter carrier takes a two-hour nap every day-but the kids are not particularly impressed. Donning an old fedora, in no time she attracts the attention of the other neighborhood children, including best friend Ivy. Inspired by a black-and-white movie her mother watches with her even though it’s not on the list of 10 movies without mean people, smoking, bad words and tiny clothes, Bean goes into the PI business. The intrigue swirls thick ’round Pancake Court.

Ivy and bean by annie barrows