Change Player

The Busy Life of Ernestine Buckmeister

Read by: Connie Britton
  • Written by: Linda Ravin Lodding
  • Illustrated by: Suzanne Beaky
  • Published by: Flashlight Press
  • Read by: Connie Britton
  • Suggested grade level: 1st - 3rd
  • Run time: 10 minutes

Ernestine is in over her head. Monday through Sunday, Ernestine’s week is packed with after-school lessons— tuba, knitting, sculpting, water ballet, yoga, yodeling, and karate.

Overwhelmed and exhausted, Ernestine decides to take matters into her own hands and heads off to the park with her Nanny where she builds a fort, watches the clouds, and plays all kinds of unstructured and imaginative games. But when a teacher calls Ernestine’s mom to report that she has not shown up for yodeling, her parents search everywhere until at last they hear their daughter’s laughter coming from the park. Ernestine tells her parents what a wonderful afternoon she’s had, and explains her plight, asking, “I like my lessons, but can’t I stop some of them?”