I preread this for my 6yo, since she's working her way up to chapter books. I wanted to like it, and parts of it were fantastic. I love the friendship, I love the differences in the two girls, and I love the imagination. I did not like the way the girls treated their parents or Bean's sister, and since the latter in particular was such a big part of the story, I can't get past that. This is going into the pile for the used bookstore.