Beany and The Meany

Susan WojciechowskiI, a former children's librarian, has written numerous books for children, including THE CHRISTMAS MIRACLE OF JONATHAN TOOMEY, recipient of the prestigious Christopher Medal. "The inspiration for BEANY AND THE MEANY came from my daughter's experience with a science fair in elementary school," she says. "On the day of the fair, she and her partner saw the other glitzy, entertaining, and showy projects and decided the best hope for their very scientific project was third place. When they didn't get called for the third place award, they were so disappointed they tuned out and didn't even hear their names called as the grand-prize winners."Susanna Natti is the illustrator of all the Beany books. Of BEANY AND THE MEANY, she says, "I can remember laboring with great concentration over a hand-drawn map for a class assignment, but alas, my map looked nothing like the map in the atlas. I completely relate to Beany's high expectations for herself and to her fears that her science project won't pass muster. I don't remember how my teacher eventually graded my map, but I sure do remember making it."