Full of Beans

Jennifer L. Holm’s Full of Beans is a 2016 middle-grade historical novel set in 1934. Main character and first-person protagonist Beans Curry is a 10-year-old boy born and raised in Key West, Florida. The Great Depression causes difficulties for the locals of the dilapidated town, including Beans’s family. “New Dealer” Mr. Julius Stone, Jr. arrives with the plan to boost Key West’s failing economy by recreating it as a tourist destination, but Beans decides that working for resident criminal Johnny Cakes is a surer way to help his family get by. Winner of the Scott O’Dell Award and a New York Library Best Book for Kids (2016), the novel features themes of deceit and distrust in hard times, battling one’s conscience, and the benefits of teamwork and unity. This guide references the 2016 Random House Children’s Books library binding edition.

Plot Summary

Ten-year-old Beans Curry lives in Key West, Florida, in 1934. The ongoing Great Depression has caused the local economy to suffer. The town can no longer pay for services like trash collection, so garbage piles up in the streets. Factories and businesses are shut down, and Beans’s father, like many others, cannot find a job.