Review - Over-Scheduled Andrew

Over-Scheduled Andrew
by Ashley Spires
Date: 2016
Publisher: Tundra Books
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 32
Format: hardcover
Source: library

Andrew loves putting on plays so he decides to join the drama club at school. Determined to make his performance the best it can be, he joins the debate club to practice his public speaking. He signs up for dance and karate to help with his coordination. Then he's asked to play for the tennis team and edit the school newspaper. Before long he's learning to play the bagpipes, attending Spanish classes and joining the French film club. Suddenly Andrew doesn't have time for anything or anyone else, not even his best friend Edie. And he definitely doesn't have time to sleep. Will Andrew figure out how to balance all his favorite activities and his best friend at the same time? A hilarious, over-the-top look at a common issue many kids today face.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

The chickadee named Andrew from Edie's Ensembles is back, this time with his own story and a very big problem.

Andrew is really into drama, so he joins the drama club. But then he thinks it might be a good idea to improve his public speaking, so he joins the debate club. One by one, more activities are added, some to complement the one that came before, until Andrew is so over-scheduled that he barely has any time to spend with his best friend, Edie. All they get is fifteen minutes a week... and Andrew is so tired that he usually falls asleep! His schedule-induced fatigue eventually gets so bad that it adversely affects his participation in the drama club... which was the reason why he started adding activities in the first place! Realizing that doing all those activities isn't helping him (in fact, it's hurting him), he decides to cut back to just the essentials.

This book has a good message, but I'm not sure if it's aimed at the right people. In this story, most of the activities Andrew had scheduled were ones he chose to do. Some kids might be put into activities by their parents and have no say in the matter (in which case, the parents are the ones who should be reading this book).

The illustrations are just as cute as in Edie's Ensembles. I didn't enjoy this book quite as much, though, as it wasn't as amusing (and the consequences of the over-scheduling were just sad to see). But I would still recommend this one, especially to kids who tend to bite off more than they can chew.

Premise: 4/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 4/5
Illustrations: 4/5
Originality: 4/5

Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall: 3.67 out of 5