The Mean, Green Lima Bean

This beautifully illustrated story begins and ends with a brief dream sequence to transform the reader's experience.  As a boy's dream unfolds, the author uses personification to give human traits to the story's main character, a lima bean named Dean.  Instead of being kind, Dean acts like a bully.  He says or does mean things to his classmates, and they get tired of his behavior.  Finally, a little lima bean named Francine ignores him. Dean's math teacher gives him some good advice, and he decides to change his ways. The universal theme of kindness is weaved through the story with rhyming words to further instill self-awareness.