Parents' Guide to Full of Beans

Parents need to know that Full of Beans is set in Key West during the Great Depression and focuses on children struggling to cope with poverty. It's a prequel to Jennifer L. Holm's Newbery Honor book Turtle in Paradise -- Beans is Turtle's cousin -- but readers don't need to be familiar with the earlier book to appreciate this one. Kids are largely left to themselves to roam the streets and play, and there's some typical kid mischief. One boy is ostracized, and Beans' gang refuses to have anything to do with Dot and other girls. Beans' moral compass starts off a little twitchy -- he isn't above lying or skirting the law to help family and friends. He learns the hard way that those choices cause real harm, and he works hard to help build up his community and make up for the damage he caused. One child has a very serious health scare, and a family loses their home to fire. Secondary adult characters include a rum runner, a mom who sells lottery tickets, an elderly woman who suffers a stroke, and a leper who conceals himself from the community.