Illustrated by Abby Carter
Beginning Reader from Candlewick (2005)
A Junior Library Guild Selection
Chicago Public Library’s Best Children’s Book, 2006
Texas 2X2 List Selection
Scholastic Book Club Selection
Nominated:Beverly Cleary Children’s Choice Award

Andy Shane doesn’t like school. In particular, he doesn’t like Delores Starbuckle, the class know-it-all. Thankfully, Andy has a very wise and understanding grandmother, Granny Webb, who helps Andy find what he needs to teach Delores a lesson!

* A surprise school visit teaches Andy something about sticking up for himself and using every resource-even the Stare-to solve a problem. Open, humorous sketches are just the right touch for this hilarious, pitch-perfect school story. Readers will want to follow Andy all the way through school. (Fiction. 5-8)
— Kirkus, starred review

* The characters are complex and realistic . . . The narrative voice is fresh and whimsical as when an impatient Dolores waves “her arms like a willow in a windstorm.” The pen-and-ink illustrations effectively depict Andy’s frustration, Dolores’s temper, and Granny’s zany self-assuredness. Andy Shane is a welcome addition to the pantheon of compelling chapter-book protagonists. Children who feel upstaged by the Junie B.s of the world will be grateful to make his acquaintance.
— School Library Journal, starred review

Dolores, consistently depicted in Carter’s frequent, informally drawn classroom scenes with her mouth either pursed disapprovingly or wide open, will elicit shivers of recognition from many young readers, and her final transformation from termagant-in-training to Andy’s bosom buddy, though suspiciously quick, brings a satisfying sense of resolution.
— Booklist

Download a guide to Teaching Six Traits with Andy Shane and the Very Bossy Dolores Starbuckle

Download a Readers Theater Script for Andy Shane and the Very Bossy Dolores Starbuckle