The Cool Bean (by Jory John)

Jory John’s The Cool Bean is a picture book that pairs humor with a thoughtful look at confidence, belonging, and personal growth. It’s a classroom favorite because students immediately recognize the social dynamics at play—and see themselves in them.

Brief Summary

The Cool Bean follows a narrator who feels overshadowed by the popular “Cool Beans.” While they seem confident, admired, and effortless, he feels awkward and unsure of where he fits. Over time, he realizes that being “cool” isn’t about popularity or perfection. Through encouragement and small acts of bravery, the narrator begins to change how he sees himself and discovers that confidence grows through effort and self-belief.

What Makes The Cool Bean So Effective

One of the book’s greatest strengths is its clear internal character development. Students can easily track how the narrator’s thoughts and feelings shift from self-doubt to confidence, making the theme accessible without being oversimplified.

The illustrations play an important role in this process. The contrast between the Cool Beans’ confident body language and the narrator’s slouched posture visually reinforces his insecurity. As the story progresses, changes in facial expression, movement, and spacing mirror the narrator’s growing confidence. These visual cues support comprehension and give students additional evidence to reference when discussing character change and theme.

The book also avoids stating its message outright. Instead, it allows readers to infer the theme through character actions, reflections, and visual details, which makes it especially effective for deeper comprehension work.

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Teaching Theme with a Now, Prove It! Activity

The Now, Prove It! activity for The Cool Bean begins with students identifying key ideas in the story and locating quotes that clearly show each one. This step helps students ground their thinking in the text before moving on to theme as well as practice matching evidence to key idea.

Next, students choose a theme option and use structured theme questions and sentence starters to explain their choice. Rather than guessing or summarizing, students practice connecting evidence to meaning in a clear, organized way.

This two-step approach—first identifying key ideas and supporting evidence, then proving theme—helps students build confidence while developing the reasoning skills needed for stronger written responses and richer discussion.

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