Book excerpt: I have a flower name . . . but it is long and hard to spell and terrible. I'll never tell anyone what it is. Mom and Dad sometimes call me by my real name when I'm in big trouble, but otherwise I'm just called Bean. Bean Gibson is so excited about the first day of third grade, not even her m-e-a-n mean older sisters, Rose and Gardenia, can bring her down. But Bean's year gets off to a bad start—her best friend, Carla, has made a new best friend, and Bean has to begin music lessons. Bean picks the violin (the cello is too big) and tries to find new friends, but music lessons are a lot of work, Goody Two-Shoes Gabrielle is prissy, and Terrible Tanisha is a bully. And Bean's mom is always at work. Bean h-a-t-e-s hates third grade! Lone Bean is an entertaining read about spunky Bean Gibson and how she learns what it means to be a good friend. And that it's possible to have more than one.