Our family has adored Susan Marlow’s original ‘Andi books’ as we call them around here. We were so excited to learn about the new Circle C Beginnings series for young readers. Where the original Andi books followed the twelve-thirteen-year-old Andrea Carter through her many adventures and life lessons, the beginnings series follows the five-six-year-old Andi through her earlier escapades, adventures, and story background.

Our family has read through most of the Andi books together as read-alouds, and we’ve found the Beginnings books to be just as charming and full of life – if not more so! Fans of the original Andi books will be excited to see a major piece of back-story filled in as Andi longs for her own real horse in Andi’s Pony Trouble.

Written for 6 to 8-year-olds, this series has met my oldest daughter right where she is in terms of reading ability. After I read the first few chapters of this first title in the series out loud, she took off on her own. It is so exciting to see her digging into this book – she even reads the “New Words” and “A Peek into the Past” sections! It wasn’t long before she’d found the series’ website and was checking release dates for the rest of the books! I continued to read it aloud to my four-year-old and toddler, and they also loved the simple text and cute artwork.

It has been all Andi and Riley all the time around our house when it is time for creative free play at our house! My girls absolutely love the characters and I’m happy to have another entertaining, wholesome series from Susan Marlow for them to read and listen to. One of my favorite aspects of Marlow’s writing is that her characters are realistic; they have flaws but learn character-building faith lessons along the way and little Andi is no exception.

Reviewed at quiverfullfamily.com ( )