Bebe Gunn

*For information on this character in the cartoon, see Bebe (cartoon).*

 — Bebe Gunn in "Bebe"

* Heitz
* McCauley
* Schick
* Brinckloe
* Hockerman

**Bebe Gunn** is a character in the *Wayside School* books. She is one of the many students in Mrs. Jewls's class. She is the "fastest draw" in the class, due to her ability to draw pictures extremely quickly. She's creative, but has a mischievous streak as well.

## Appearance

In the books, Bebe is described as having short brown hair, big brown eyes, a little beebee nose, and totally tiny toes. In "A Story That Isn't About Socks," Bebe's "best clothes" consist of yellow shorts, a red shirt with white polka dots and a floppy green hat. Aside from this, very little of Bebe's appearance is described, but numerous illustrations depict her with a beret, a common trait used for artists.

## Personality

In the books, Bebe is an artistic, excitable student. She enjoys art class heavily, and spends the entire period trying to draw as many pictures as she can as quickly as she can. However, it appears she rarely regards the quality of her art all that much, as she is far more focused on drawing several hundred pictures with Calvin. While she does experience trouble with criticism, as she runs home crying when Mrs. Jewls notes that if one person were to draw a single better picture in their life than Bebe's two million, then that person would've produced more art than Bebe, she also does take these criticisms to heart, as she then focuses on drawing the best cat she can. It is shown that oftentimes Bebe focuses on her art so much, she often has difficulty in other classes. As is seen in "Science," Bebe sometimes takes notes by drawing, as she reimagines the clouds she sees as various other things and quickly sketches them in her notebook.

Bebe is a bit mischievous, as shown in "Bebe's Baby Brother." In this chapter, Bebe lies about having a brother named Ray Gunn so she can get away with mean comments about Mrs. Jewls she writes on her assignments, get good grades, and earn Tootsie Roll Pops. Similarly, in "Blame It on the Cloud," she uses the Cloud of Doom as a scapegoat for showing up to school late. Bebe is immensely creative, and this helps her with getting away with many of her misdeeds, as she is about immediately able to come up with a lie to keep Mrs. Jewls off her track when questioned about the rude comments written on her paper.

From her interactions with other characters, it can be shown that Bebe is very energetic, as is seen in "Why the Children Decided They Had to Get Rid of Mrs. Drazil," when she asks Mrs. Drazil for all sixty cookies, and in "Science" and "The Best Principal Ever!!!" where she excitedly begs to be chosen. As is revealed in "Bebe's Baby Brother," she frequently stays up past midnight to produce her best work.

## Relationships

### Calvin

    Calvin is Bebe's best friend in the books. In "Bebe," Calvin becomes Bebe's art partner, because Calvin loves art, but worries that he isn't very good at it because he can't draw too many pictures. After that, the two become best friends, frequently interacting with one another as seen in "Music" or "Explanation." Bebe tries to be nice to Calvin whenever she can, and avoids telling him that she doesn't like his potato tattoo, citing that it's a better potato than she could draw. The only time Bebe is seen working against Calvin is in "Stupid," after Miss Wendy Nogard damages their relationship after reading their minds to find out what makes them most miserable. However, upon the appearance of Mavis Jewls, the frustration dissipates, and Calvin and Bebe become friends again, as she asks him for a paper clip in "Consider the Paper Clip," and asks for his thoughts on the rainbow stew in "Rainbow."Though there friendships might’ve have broken under the cloud of doom.

### Benjamin Nushmutt

When Benjamin first arrives in Mrs. Jewls's class, Bebe becomes quick to befriend him, as shown in "Mark Miller." When Benjamin doesn't show up to recess, Bebe becomes worried, and later on in "The Substitute," Bebe seems excited to explain to Benjamin the situation with Mrs. Franklin. Additionally, in "A Light Bulb, a Pencil Sharpener, a Coffeepot, and a Sack of Potatoes," Benjamin lends her his lunchbox when she's trying to reach the light bulb screwed into the ceiling. However, aside from this, the two are rarely seen interacting.

## Appearances

For a list of every chapter and episode Bebe is seen in, see here.

## Trivia

* Bebe's name is a pun on "BB gun," a type of air gun used to shoot small metallic pellets. She is additionally described as the "fastest draw in Mrs. Jewls's class," a term usually used to describe someone that can quickly pull a gun from its holster, though due to the wordplay common in the *Wayside School* series, here it refers to someone who can draw pictures quickly.
* Bebe is one of the only five students to appear in the play version of *Sideways Stories from Wayside School*. The other four are Myron, Leslie, Dameon and Rondi.
* In the Heitz drawings, Bebe appears to be left-handed but in the other ones, she is right-handed.

### Other designs

Peter Allen design (British edition, 2004)Bebe as she appears in the Cartoon. (2007)Unknown illustrator (Traditional Chinese edition, 2008)Satoshi Kitamura illustration (Japanese edition, 2010)Unknown illustrator (Simplified Chinese edition, 2012)Ramona Bruno design (Italian edition, 2021)
## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Bebe"
2. ↑ "Bebe's Baby Brother"