The newest offering of Andy Andrews, the bestselling (and well-loved) author of such timeless books as THE TRAVELER’S GIFT, THE NOTICER and THE HEART MENDER, is a small gift book that will have a large impact upon readers’ hearts and lives. THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT most certainly will challenge readers of all ages to rethink their life’s purpose by taking a second look at the tiniest attitude adjustments to the most major life decisions they’ve made. Andrews encourages his fans to stop, heed a few lessons from history, and then reconsider how their thoughts and actions will impact not only themselves and those closest to them, but also the world at large and for all ages.

Andrews tells readers that every choice matters because it truly does have a butterfly effect that produces repercussions that may start small but end up changing the course of history. In this beautifully colorful book, he asks his audience the questions individuals throughout time ask themselves: “How significant is my life? Do I make a difference? When I move…when I act…when I do something…does the universe notice? Do I really matter?” With a resounding “Yes!” Andrews then demonstrates how a number of individuals who made small yet significant choices literally altered the course of history.

Andrews cites Edward Lorenz, who in 1963 presented a hypothesis to the New York Academy of Science on the Butterfly Effect where he tried to convince skeptical colleagues that “A butterfly could flap its wings and set molecules of air in motion, which would move other molecules of air, in turn moving more molecules of air --- eventually capable of starting a hurricane on the other side of the planet.” Preposterous, they claimed, until more than 30 years later physics professors concluded that Lorenz was right and dubbed this “The Law of Sensitive Dependence Upon Initial Conditions.”

Upon this framework, Andrews presents other equally astounding accounts of men and women whose lives change others. Read about Joshua Chamberlain, Colonel in the Union Army, 1863, whose courageous choices helped defeat the Confederacy. Historians then noted that if the South had won, the U.S. would be a fragmented continent much like Europe and would not have been strong enough to defeat Hitler and “fight and win two wars on two fronts at the same time.” Readers will also learn how Norman Borlaug, Henry Wallace and George Washington Carver lived lives that transformed into national events because of small (at the time) seemingly insignificant choices.

THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT is a welcome positive word of hope and inspiration that can and will be the change agent for everyone who heeds Andrews’s advice and counsel.