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    Ida B: ...and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World
    Unavailable
    Ida B: ...and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World
    Unavailable
    Ida B: ...and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World
    Audiobook3 hours

    Ida B: ...and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World

    Written by Katherine Hannigan

    Narrated by Lili Taylor

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Who is Ida B. Applewood? She is a fourth grader like no other, living a life like no other, with a voice like no other, and a family like no other, and her story will resonate long after this audiobook has ended. How does Ida B. cope when outside forces--life, really--attempt to derail her and her family and her future? She enters her Black Period, and it is not pretty. But then, with the help of a patient teacher, a loyal cat and dog, her beloved apple trees, and parents who believe in the same things she does (even if they sometimes act as though they don't), the resilience that is the very essence of Ida B. triumphs . . . and Ida B. Applewood takes the hand that is extended and starts to grow up.

    This first novel is both very funny and extraordinarily moving, and it introduces two shining stars, author Katherine Hanningan and Ida B. Applewood.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateAug 24, 2004
    ISBN9781400090952
    Author

    Katherine Hannigan

    Katherine Hannigan studied mathematics, painting, and studio art and has worked as the education coordinator for a Head Start program and, most recently, as an assistant professor of art and design. She is the author of True (. . . Sort Of), Emmaline and the Bunny, and the national bestseller Ida B . . . and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World. She lives in Iowa with a bunch of cats and the occasional bunny or bird visitor. Her backyard hosts an additional array of creatures, including deer, raccoons, possums, and sometimes a skunk. But no alligators . . . yet!

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    Reviews for Ida B

    4/5

    420 ratings43 reviews

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    • 4/5
      My daughter really enjoyed this book. It does an excellent job of showing how a girl works through her anger and grief when many changes occur in her family's life.
    • 2/5
      I thought this would be a fun book. It wasn't fun. It was sad and depressing. It was well written but I don't like sad children's books. Ida B. is both lovable and annoying. The characters were well written and fleshed out. I can see this helping other children get through a parent's diagnosis. It just wasn't my thing
    • 4/5
      Ida B has been home shcooled, and out of touch with other children, and she likes it that way. But when her mother gets cancer, she not longer has the energy to teach Ida B at home. Now, not only does Ida have to go to public school, but to pay for the cancer treatments her father is selling off part of the family farm that she so loves.Ida B is angry with her parents, the school, and basically the world, and she is determined not to allow anyone or anything to intrude on her anger and disappointment with everything. Which makes her one miserable little girl.The saving grace is Mrs. Washington, her teacher in the public school. Even without knowing any specifics about what Ida B is going through, she intuitively understands a great deal, and slowly and patiently gives Ida B exactly what she needs.I would have liked to have seen Ida B come out of her anger mode a little sooner, and have a little more reconciliation time. She is pretty horrid to her parents and one of her school mates especially. All kids have these angry-at-the-world episodes, but for most kids they don't last as long and hang on as tenaciously as Ida B's did.
    • 4/5
      Ida B is a sweet story about a girl who loves nature and has to deal with some difficult issues: her mother's illness, loss of the land, trying public school. An enjoyable read.
    • 3/5
      My main problem with this book is that it's trying too hard to be Kate DiCamillo -- and I'm going to admit something here: I generally don't like Kate DiCamillo's writing. (The exception to this would be The Tale of Despereaux.) So, to me, Ida B. felt disingenuous, like the author was straining to make the main character unique and likable. Ida B.'s narration has a weird, folksy tone that I spent a large portion of the book trying to place. Was it Southern? Appalachian? All-purpose country-girl? In my head, I couldn't make it sound right for rural Wisconsin, which is where the book is set.The story, once you get beyond the narrative voice, is fairly good: Ida B. spends most of her time playing in the orchard (talking to the trees, which she has named) and by the brook near her house. She is home-schooled because traditional schooling didn't work for her, a free spirit. When her mother becomes ill, Ida B. is sent back to school for the first time in four years, and her father has to sell part of the farm (including a few of Ida B.'s beloved trees) to pay the bills. Ida B. must find some way to cope with these changes in her life, and her fears about her mother's health.I'm not sorry to have read the book, and I did find it a quick read. I imagine its ideal reader (probably a big Kate DiCamillo fan) would really enjoy it . . . I'm just not that reader.
    • 5/5
      I absolutely loved this book when I was younger.Its been a while since I last read it.
    • 4/5
      It is impossible not to love Ida B. I'm not talking about the book, I'm talking about the girl herself. Unique and exhuberant, Ida B lets readers tag along as she makes plans to "Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World."Ida B Applewood is a bright, witty, home-schooled girl, constantly planning for all possible outcomes while rambling around her parents' apple orchard. Ida talks to nature, and it talks back! Readers skip along with Ida B, fascinated by her bubbly enthusiasm for life. When Ida B's mother is diagnosed with breast cancer, Ida B's whole world turns upside down. Readers now walk sulkily beside Ida B while she works out her pain, anger, and frustration at the unfairness of life in ways that even grown-ups can relate to.Hannigan captures the 8-9 year old voice perfectly, and readers will be thankful they were able to get to know Ida B!
    • 5/5
      Ida B is an extraordinary girl with a wonderful imagination. Her strength is tested when she finds out that her mother is sick and everything in her life will change.
    • 3/5
      At times I really did not like the main character of this book, Ida B., but I'm glad I didn't give up on the book because of her behavior. It is a good book about a little girl dealing with life changes that she nor her family have control over. Good read, although I felt the author over did trying to sound common or child-like; however, when I read excerpts to my husband he thought it was well done. It's worth giving it a try.
    • 5/5
      This book is about a young girl who lives, learns and plays on a farm. Her family raises crops and makes thier money off the farm. Ida B is a very imaginative little girl, who is a free spirit. She plays along the trees and her imagination takes her places. Her mom becomes ill and she has to return to school, which she does not like. I loved this book and I loved Ida B!
    • 5/5
      Ida B. lives happily on her farm with her parents. She spends her days being home-schooled and talking to the trees. Then, however, her mother is diagnosed with cancer, and everything changes. Ida must learn to deal with the public elementary school and to accept disappointment without anger. Ida B's realistic voice is the most compelling aspect of this book. She has a capacity to explain complex emotions in a way that is completely understandable to children. Thus, although this book targets older elementary students, it can be read aloud to younger students.
    • 5/5
      I read this book so long ago, I can't remember much about the when. What I do remember is how much I loved the story and the quote that was printed at the top of the front cover from Kate DiCamillo that caused me to read the book in the first place. It read, "I feel a deep gratitude that Ida B exists." At least, that's how I remember the quote having gone. In any case, it's a good quote and a true one. I feel the same way. Ida B is one of the few unparalleled joys that children's literature has given me over the past decade. The aspect that I like the most about this book is the gentle competent nature of its adults. So many children's books depend on buffoonish, possibly evil adults to build a plot around. This story focused instead on life handing out a lemon and everyone dealing with it as well as they could. I think my favorite adult character was her teacher, and not because she was one of those uncontrolled brilliant geniuses full of quirky Ms. Frizzle-like antics. For once, a teacher was presented in the most honest of terms, as someone who exhibited endless patience above all else. In reality, teachers typically show greatness when they offer patience more than any other quality. It's the general acceptance that teaching is two or three parts listening for every one part sharing advice. My favorite scenes all came on the recess yard when Ida sat with her teacher, who would inevitably ask if there was anything she wanted to talk about only to be answered with silence. She would never get upset. She wouldn't walk off. She'd just sit there with her, not pushing, just waiting until the time was right for Ida. That is great teaching. That is great parenting. That is what is means to be truly worthwhile adult. I feel a deep gratitude that Ida B exists. I feel a deeper gratitude that Katherine Hannigan created a world where someone of Ida's depth could exist. This book is a masterpiece.
    • 5/5
      Ida B is a heroine in the mold of some of my all time favorites - Laura Ingalls Wilder: Pippi Longstocking; Ramona Quimby; even the more recent Clementine - although I'm most sure that she would be bosom friends with Anne Shirley (of Green Gables fame). The things that I loved best about Anne Shirley are the things that I love best about Ida B: Her connection to nature - talking with the apple trees, chatting with the brook; Her curiousity and ingenuity - tired of having to constantly wash her face, Miss Ida B tries to come up with an ill-fated plan for a Soap Mask; Her troubles with conformity - her first interaction with schooling and all its rules and 'wonderful things everywhere that you couldn't touch or take time for' was such a soul-crushing experience that her parents decided to homeschool her, to everyone's benefit.


      But when something unexpected happens, and Ida B's mama gets cancer, everything changes. Between the money troubles that lead to selling off parts of their land, Ida B's daddy turning into some tense and promise-breaking stranger, and her mama's sickness & treatment stealing not only her energy and her health, but what Ida B perceives as her 'real mama': her spirit, her light. Things get truly difficult in their household when Ida B has to return to public school, because her mom is just not well enough to teach her anymore.

      And when that happens, there's a passage so simple and concise, but breathtakingly true, about how you learn to cope when people let you down or betray you (as Ida B sees it). About how you have to harden your heart in order to just go on. I'm going to include it here, just so you can see how spectacular it is, how sad and awful and... right.

      "But as I cried, my heart was being transformed. It was getting smaller and smaller in my chest and hardening up like a rock. The smaller and harder my heart got, the less I cried, until finally I stopped completely.
      By the time I was finished, my heart was a sharp, black stone that was small enough to fit in the palm of my hand. It was so hard nobody could break it and so sharp it would hurt anybody who touched it.

      Armed with this new heart, Ida B concots a plan to "just shy of death and dismemberment, to fight the craziness that had taken over my family and was invading my valley. I'd come up with a plan, and they'd be sorry, every single one of them, that they had to reckon with Ida B."

      How Ida B puts that plan into action - and the strength it takes her to carry it out, and then to learn to open her heart back up - are what the rest of the book focuses on.

      And I loved it because A) Ida B is stubborn & she can stick to that plan of making everybody sorry for as long as humanly possible (and you, as a reader, can't blame her)

      B)The other characters in the book deal with Ida B & her stubbornness in different ways - with patience, anger, distrust, confusion - All appropriate responses to a girl who is determined to not have any fun, or be happy, because then it might prove her parents right in sending her back to school. But none of the characters are characitures - Her dad gets mad, but he also tries to stay calm. Her mom is disappointed, but tries not to push to hard. Her teacher (and boy do I love me an awesome teacher) just sits, and schemes her own schemes, and waits Ida B out.

      C) When Ida B finally realizes that maybe she's got some apologizing to do, and maybe she's gone too far in this whole campaign, there are no miracle fixes. She has consequences to her previous behaviors, and they're not ridiculous either - no blood feuds or instant bonding here - Just realistic sucking it up and saying you're sorry, and having the other person maybe not looking at you out of the corners of their eyes all the time.

      Anyways, Ida B is amazing, and everybody should read it, and then figure out a way to put Lucy Maud Montgomery next to Katherine Hannigan on your bookshelves, just so Ida B and Anne can coexist somewhere besides my brain.
    • 4/5
      Ida B lives a comfortable, home-schooled life on a farm with lots of land, until her mother starts a battle with cancer.A sweet little story that does a nice job describing childhood anxieties and coping reactions when a loved one gets sick and life changes.
    • 5/5
      I think this is a very emotional book that is very enjoyable. It is a realistic-fiction that alot of people can relate to.
    • 5/5
      My favorite thing about this book is the fact that Ida B talks to the trees in her family's orchard! Beyond the obvious sweetness of that, I feel like the trees are really Ida B's essence, her soul or subconscious . . . and I think by talking to the trees Ida B is really trying to talk to the deepest part of herself. Of course there are big changes with her mom's cancer, going to public school for the first time, dealing with her anger, friendships and her teacher. I love how Ida B's teacher draws her out and how the story ends.I enjoy using this book as a read-aloud, but in truth, I get a little emotional when I read it, but it is a beautiful story.
    • 4/5
      Ida B... and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly)Save the World is an emotional book. It may be funny in the beginning, but when you start getting near the end,you're going to need a tissue. The only reason I did not cry was because I was laying down in my bed when I was reading it. Ida B... and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly)Save the World is mainly about Ida B. Applewood, who wants to be called Ida B. because "Ida", I suppose, is just too boring of a name(according to her)."Ida B.", now, has a nice rhythm to it. Anyway, Ida B.'s parents own an orchard with many apple trees. You soon find out that Ida B. can talk to apple trees, but in the beginning, you find out that all of the trees have names. Paulie T. is the mean tree, and he is the one to accidentally spread the bad news to Ida B. You will find out what the news is later, and I would tell you, though I dislike giving out spoilers. This book seems very real to me, and I think that there is a real Ida B.
    • 4/5
      This is a great book- the main character is a fascinating person with a fascinating life. I wasn't big on the way she responded to her problems, but that is how some people, even fascinating people, respond. I loved her interesting forms of schooling, and her connection to nature. This book also reminds us of the things that school can be- good and bad.
    • 4/5
      This book is about a girl named Ida Applewood. Ida is called Ida B. Ida B is a fourth grader who is home schooled. Ida lives on a farm with her parents. Ida B is a bright girl. Her life could be called perfect. All that changed when her mom was diagnosed with cancer. Ida B's life is torn apart. I recommend this book to girls and boys who like a good story. I would also recommend this book to boys/ girls who can relate to how Ida B is feeling. Readers who know how it feels to have your world torn apart. This book is a very good book. I rated this book a 4 1/2 because it wasn't great but I foiund it interesting. Katherine Hannigan, the author did a great job writing this book. SHe deifintely touched the readers.
    • 5/5
      Ida B. is a character I will remember long after I have closed the book. Getting into Ida B's head and sharing her thoughts and feelings was a most remarkable experience. Katherine Hannigan is a very gifted writer and I look forward to reading more of her work. Highly recommended!
    • 5/5
      Ida B. by Katherine Hannigan is about a girl who has to come to terms with some huge changes in her life. First and foremost, her mother has been diagnosed with cancer. Second, she can no longer be home schooled. Third, and perhaps, worst, for her, her parents have sold off a portion of their apple orchard.Ida B. spends most of her free time in the orchard. She has names and personalities for each of the trees. Ida B. has her way of doing things. Being a precocious, only child, she has until now, gotten her way. Now, though, to her dismay, she has to adjust. It takes her nearly the full year at school to finally warm to her teacher.I listened to the audio, a short three discs, performed by Lili Taylor. She just brought Ida B. to life. The things Ida B. goes through are just heart breaking and Taylor brings all that emotion to her performance.
    • 5/5
      I enjoy the book and I think Ida B accomplished everything she was trying to accomplish, like when she scared her freind from school that was moving in next door. In the end she said sorry.
    • 5/5
      HEART WARMING SAD
    • 4/5
      The narrator of the audio book did a great job as Ida B. Ida B's plans, especially to maximize fun reminded me of Bud, not Buddys, rules for a funner life. The book starts out like an update version of the Moffats - very sunny and carefree, but it soon changes with the introduction of the mother's cancer. It doesn't get too gloomy, but I'm wondering if there are any books written for children and young adults that are just for fun.
    • 5/5
      Ida B will always be on of my favorite kid's books. I love how quirky and real Ida B is. Dealing with her mom's cancer, Ida B has a very realistic response of lashing out at the world out of fear and missing her old life. I really appreciate that the conflict in this book is primarily internal as Ida B struggles to deal with the changes of her life. I think this book would be a great way to teach metaphor and simile to students as these literary devices are used throughout Ida B's internal monologues to compare and contrast what Ida B is familiar with to things that she isn't to help her cope with the changes.
    • 3/5
      A fun book despite the serious issues it addresses. Ida B is an entertaining, vivacious character.
    • 4/5
      Ida always has a big amagination and she loves to play and she never think there is enough time to play but after her mom get sick things turn around and she has to go back to school instead of being homeschooled
    • 4/5
      This was a good book how a girl of that age might think. I think we all feel that way at time. I want to try and have that thinking myself.
    • 3/5
      Great read. Ida B is a keeper.
    • 4/5
      This was an enjoyable book about 9 year old Ida B Applewood. Ida is an only child who loves nature and the outdoors. She is a thinker and can be quite stubborn. I would definitely recommend this one for upper elementary and middle school aged children.