Pleas Help (somewhat OT)

I came here to read up on this movie to see how they handled a particular scene from the book, but, alas I seem to have misremembered my source material. Perhaps someone who visits this MB can help me figure out from what book I remember this scene:

Near the end of the book the main character's friend, possibly named Ira, gets stung by a bee and dies. It was quite a grim shock for this 9 year-old who had been reading a light-hearted and humorous children's novel.

My 4th and 5th grade teachers made the class read HTEFW and its sequel, and most of the Judy Blume books out at the time, so I thought the bee sting death occured in one of them. Unfortunately my search thus far has been fruitless.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.