Over-Scheduled Andrew - Hardcover

Ashley Spires, author and illustrator of numerous funny books for children including The Most Magnificent Thing and the Binky the Space Cat series, was born and raised in BC with eight cats and a dog. After spending some time living in Toronto and Saskatoon, she has returned to the BC life, living in Ladner with three cats, one dog and a man. When she is not running or bike riding or over-scheduling herself, she makes children's books, many of which have won numerous awards, including Ontario's Silver Birch Express, the Atlantic Province's Hackmatack, Saskatchewan's Shining Willow and BC's Chocolate Lily Award. Visit Ashley at her website www.ashleyspires.com or follow her on twitter: @ashleyspires The author lives in Delta, BC.

K-Gr 3-Andrew (an adorable chickadee) loves acting so much that he joins the drama club. He likes drama club so much that he joins the debate club and karate class and takes ballet to help improve his work on the stage. Because there is so much that interests him and it's hard to say no, things soon snowball from busy to overscheduled as Andrew also joins chess club, the tennis team, the school newspaper, French film club, Spanish classes, and singing lessons and takes up the bagpipe. Soon Andrew is debating his way through karate, dancing through debate club, playing bagpipes on the tennis court, sleeping through his 15 minutes of best friend time and backhanding his chess pieces. Worst of all, he misses his cue for the big play and sleeps through the entire thing. This disappointment is the catalyst he needs, and the next day he (nicely) quits everything except drama and French film club. Now he can focus on the things he loves, including his friends. Spires's digitally rendered illustrations are crisp, clean, and detailed with plenty of white space. They clearly depict the action and add numerous humorous touches. The text placement varies throughout and works perfectly with the flow of the story and pictures. VERDICT Not only cute and funny, this is also valuable subject matter for adults and children to read about. Though one does wonder where Andrew's parents are-maybe too overscheduled to notice?-Catherine Callegari, formerly at Gay-Kimball Library, Troy, NHα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.