I'm Busy

Written by Michael Ian Black

Illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

978-1-6659-1524-3

40 pp.

Ages 4–8

Releases February 24 2026 

 

Michael Black and Debbie Ridpath Ohi's remarkable trio—a little girl, a pink flamingo, and a potato—from I'm Bored (2012), I'm Sad (2018), I'm Worried (2019), and I'm Sorry (2021) have returned, and now one of them is struggling with overcommitment and a lack of life balance. Together they've always helped each other through their issues. Can they help this time? And will there be a time when they can fit it in?

From I'm Busy, written by Michael Ian Black, illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi

Flamingo wants to play, but every time he asks his friend, the little girl with the darling yellow barrettes, if she wants to play superheroes or Hula-Hoop, she tells him that she's busy. She may be painting or coding or experimenting or practising her trumpet, but it's always something. And her reasoning? "I can't! School starts in two weeks and then I've only got twelve years before college applications are due!" (pg. 7) Yikes. This child has a lot on her mind and her calendar.

From I'm Busy, written by Michael Ian Black, illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi

Flamingo is very understanding, as is the droll Potato ("I can't read," he says when she shows them her calendar. [pg. 9]), but their questions about when she'll have time disquiet her. They try to help her slow down by watching the clouds, and that finally makes her realize that she needs to find balance to her dilemma. (FYI, a dilemma is not like a soufflé as Potato suggests.)

From I'm Busy, written by Michael Ian Black, illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi

This little girl isn't just busy. She's also stressing because of that busyness. But with the help of her friends, making time for herself, and maybe some playing in the mud, she finds some balance in her life. And she finds it with humour, companionship, and uncommon wisdom. 

 

The humour is courtesy of American comedian (and actor and writer) Michael Ian Black who manages to make readers laugh while guiding them through common childhood dilemmas. Here, taking on more than she can handle is the result of uncertainty about her future and whether she can accomplish all that she feels she must. Though there are no adults in Michael Ian Black and Debbie Ridpath Ohi's I'm books, I can't help but think that there are some adults in the little girl's life compounding her worries. (Mind you, she's already coding so all this could be a result of her own awareness of what she needs to do to be successful.) Her friends may be unusual, but with Flamingo's eagerness for play, and Potato's apparent inertia, Michael Ian Black has created a perfect trio of characters that children will appreciate, maybe even know, and from whom they can learn while laughing, right down to the last line.

 

But I'm Busy needs Debbie Ridpath Ohi's illustrations to bring the story to life. We know the book's characters through her art, as well as Michael Ian Black's voice, but she gives them the colour and shape and expression that makes them easily identifiable and wholly adored. There is never any question that this little girl is accomplished but frantic with busyness. Her eyes are focused, she has a strained or absent smile, and, when she's really anxious, there are despair lines around her eyes. Debbie Ridpath Ohi's artwork is so evocative that she can create deep emotions with just a few lines. (Look at Potato in the illustration below. With just two eyes and a mouth, it is evident that he is cringing at her trumpet playing.) Thanks to Debbie Ridpath Ohi's art, reading I'm Busy is a treat for the eyes as well as the spirit.

From I'm Busy, written by Michael Ian Black, illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi

Help young children find balance in their lives with some humour, extraordinary friends, and an abundance of colour and joy with a reading of I'm Busy. Then read the other I'm books in the series to help them understand their feelings and handle them with self-assurance, with or without a flamingo or a potato by their side.

 

• • • • • • • • • • • 

 

Read all five of the I'm books by Michael Ian Black and Debbie Ridpath Ohi. After all, it's important to make time for the good things in life. 

 

I'm Bored (2012)

I'm Sad (2018)

I'm Worried (2019)

I'm Sorry (2021)

I'm Busy (2026)

 

Also, there are some fun resources 

at Debbie Ridpath Ohi's page for I'm Busy here

• • • • • • • • • • • 

I'm Worried

Written by Michael Ian Black

Illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

978-1-5344-1586-7

40 pp.

Ages 4-8

June 2019

While I am loathe to call any book bibliotherapeutic, there is something reassuring and healing about Michael Ian Black and Debbie Ridpath Ohi's books that offer children a comforting perspective on common emotions with which they may be dealing. Here, they tackle, with great sensitivity and much humour, the worry that comes from dwelling on the future and the possibility that bad things might happen.

From I'm Worried, illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi, text by Michael Ian Black

When Potato shares with his friends that he is worried, he may say it could be anything but he's visualizing snakes, spiders, a meteorite crashing to earth, a marauding T-Rex, an alien reading about cooking with potatoes, an erupting volcano, a pop quiz, and even a circus clown. Though he'd like the little girl to reassure him that nothing bad will ever happen, the insightful child knows that she cannot do so "because nobody know what's going to happen."

From I'm Worried, illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi, text by Michael Ian Black

That, regrettably, gets Flamingo worrying too. So the girl gives them examples of when bad things did happen, from bruising to a struggle with peanut butter and even a broken arm, and reminds them that they survived and some good even came from those experiences.

All of those things were bad at first...
...but over time they turned out okay.

From I'm Worried, illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi, text by Michael Ian Black

Unfortunately Flamingo's solution is to protect them in bubble wrap. Fortunately, when that goes awry, the girl's suggestion that living in the moment might be preferable to worrying about the future seems to work.

In our stressful lives of competitive activities, intense social media and uncertainty about the future, it's not surprising that children are now far more anxious about life than in generations earlier. We might wish their lives to be filled with more play and for them to demonstrate more resilience but we're not giving them that kind of a world. So, without preaching mindfulness, Michael Ian Black proposes simply "enjoying the now" and it seems that, with a few friends, anything can be tolerated.

Just as she did in I'm Bored (2012) and I'm Sad (2018), Debbie Ridpath Ohi's illustrations give life to Michael Ian Black's text. From the perceptive little girl with her flower barrettes and striped tights, to the fuchsia flamingo and the potato with dramatic eyebrows and even worry lines, Debbie Ridpath Ohi makes the simple detailed, giving spirit and personality through her bold palette and wobbly edges. (I don't know what it is about those edges that I adore. Maybe it's the depth or dimensionality they create but they make me smile.)

From I'm Worried, illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi, text by Michael Ian Black

There will be, of course, some children for whom I'm Worried will not be enough to allay their worries. However, for many, the lesson that living in the moment, enjoying the goodness of friends and the immediacy of the task at hand, will be enough to ground and hopefully help endure the unknowns of the future.

I'm Sad

Written by Michael Ian Black

Illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

978-1-4814-7627-0

40 pp.

Ages 4-8

June 2018

At any time, there will be media coverage about a celebrity's unexpected death from suicide. There will be yet another outcry for resources to support mental health initiatives.  And there will be those who still won't get it, thinking that having everything–fame, money, friends, home–is enough assurance that overwhelming, debilitating sadness cannot overtake and even engulf.  But if there's a great place to start to acquire an understanding of sadness, which can manifest as depression, it's the newest collaboration from the dynamic duo of Michael Ian Black and Debbie Ridpath Ohi who amused and enlightened us with I'm Bored (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2012).

From I'm Sad by Michael Ian Black, illus. by Debbie Ridpath Ohi

The first double spread has a single image of the pink flamingo simply stating, "I'm sad." The message is a simple statement but Debbie Ridpath Ohi's illustration says so much more. From the drooping feathers to the bowed neck and downcast eyes, this bird is barely holding itself up or together.  The imaginative little girl and bored potato from I'm Bored listen and attempt to understand. They try to help by acknowledging that they don't think the flamingo will always feel sad and that everybody feels sad sometimes. Even as they try to help, as all friends would want to do, they grapple with understanding what the flamingo needs, initially only thinking of what would work for them. Michael Ian Black astutely recognizes that we all can only understand from our own frame of reference, with the little girl thinking ice cream, sports and activity while the potato knows that dirt would certainly cheer it up.  Even after the little girl recognizes that sometimes allowing oneself to be sad can be therapeutic and relieving flamingo that its sadness will not change their friendship, it's a good laugh courtesy of the potato's dry wit that relieves some of the tension.  It may not alleviate the sadness but it can help.

I'm Sad by Michael Ian Black, illus. by Debbie Ridpath Ohi

Many children's books that attempt to provide bibliotherapy fall short of the mark because they tend to get too preachy, convinced they have the answer. I'm Sad is not one of them. It surpasses in its message that sadness can be a significant emotion and reassurance can be the most effective strategy for helping a friend feeling debilitated by it.  By having the little girl and the potato attempt to understand, question, reassure, and suggest, Michael Ian Black has them standing with flamingo in its struggle with sadness. They don't try to vacuum it up or ignore it. They simply accept it as the flamingo explains it.  If flamingo begins to feels better, so be it.  If it doesn't, they are still there for it.

In the boldness of her colour and line, Debbie Ridpath Ohi makes sure that the depth of Michael Ian Black's message is evident. Amidst the potato's cynicism and the little girl's joie de vivre, the flamingo's sadness is unmistakable. Debbie Ridpath Ohi's ability to evoke so much story with the simplest of lines continues to astound and impress me. (See my reviews of Sam & Eva and I'm Bored.) Even her final image packs a punch of friendship and support with only a silhouette without benefit of colour.

From I'm Sad by Michael Ian Black, illus. by Debbie Ridpath Ohi

All school libraries and guidance counselling offices should have a copy of I'm Sad to help children understand the sadness they or their friends or family may be experiencing and to reassure, just as the little girl and potato do, that support is there, even if the sadness can't be wiped out.

From I'm Sad by Michael Ian Black, illus. by Debbie Ridpath Ohi

• • • • • • • • • •
n.b. There is a classroom guide by Marcie Colleen available for download here. 

I'm Bored

Written by Michael Ian Black

Illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

978-1-4424-1403-7

40 pp.

Ages 3-8

2012

Without Canadian illustrator Debbie Ridpath Ohi to bring American comic Michael Black's text to life, I'm Bored would be so lifeless.  Really.  The illustrations take the simple text, of a little girl complaining about being bored and then trying to prove to a potato that kids aren't boring, from the stark to the sublime.

Debbie Ridpath Ohi's drawings may be created from few pen strokes but what expression in those strokes!  With a mere six details (two eyes, two brows, one nose, and one mouth), the illustrator can take the young child in I'm Bored from despondency to frustration, surprise, delight, determination, exaltation and indignation, all in the cause of convincing the equally-expressionistic spud that kids are amazing.  The little brown tuber may have few lines, "Boring" being repeated 19 times, but he does pay attention, almost hopeful that the girl may prove worthy of his company.

And her imaginative play of being a famous ballerina, or a lion tamer, princess, pirate and monster, just to name a few roles, takes her bold and colourful self into imagined settings of rock concerts, rolling oceans, science labs, outer space, and mountain tops.  If that brown (and isn't that a boring colour?) potato can't see the wonder of a kid who can marvel at the antics she can put her body through in creative play, then he deserves to be bored.

Luckily, just as the 2011 Blue Spruce Award winner, My Think-A-Ma-Jink by Dave Whamond (Owlkids, 2009), reminds us that a child's imagination can take him or her anywhere, anytime, to do anything, with anyone, I'm Bored lets a little girl recollect that the cure for boredom is all within.  What does a spud know anyways?


If this book isn't enough, Debbie Ohi offers activities and print-ready templates of cards, posters, book plates, etc. based on the "I'm Bored" theme at http://debbieohi.com/  There are even a few snarky ones courtesy of the little potato.

I'm Bored: Book Launch

Join 

illustrator 

Debbie Ridpath Ohi 

on Tuesday, September 18, 2012 

from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

at  TYPE Books

883 Queen St. West

(between Bathurst and Ossington)

Toronto

for the launch of her first picture book

I'm Bored

Written by Michael Ian Black

Illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi

Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers

978-1442414037

40 pp.

For release September 4, 2012
 

This simple but highly relevant picture book focuses on a bored little girl who must change her way of thinking and demonstrate, to a potato, that children are not boring but amazing. 

More about Debbie Ridpath Ohi, a children's book illustrator and writer who lives in  Toronto, can be read at her website http://debbieohi.com

n.b. I'm Bored will be released on September 4th but the official launch will take place on September 18th.