Olivia

Author: Ian Falconer

Publishing:  Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing

Number of Pages: Hardcover—40 pages

Genre:  Picture Book

Reading Level:  Ages 4-8

Summary: This book is about a pig named Olivia.  Olivia wears everyone out, even herself.  She has a little brother named Ian who liked to copy what Olivia does, so sometimes Olivia has to be firm with her brother.  She lives with her mom, dad, little brother, dog, and cat.  Olivia’s morning routines always take a while especially because she has to try on everything.  On sunny days, Olivia likes to go to the beach; she likes to make sandcastles because her mom taught her how.  Olivia is supposed to take a nap everyday but she is never at all sleepy.  On rainy days Olivia likes to go to the museum and she always goes straight for her favorite picture.  Another picture that she looks at she does not understand and so she recreates it herself, on the wall—for that she gets a time out.  Then she has to take a bath, eat dinner, and then it is time for bed.   Olivia gets five books to read but her mom only lets her read three of them.  In the end Olivia’s mom tells her that she wears her out, but she still loves her.  Then Olivia says that she loves her too.  And that’s how it ends.

My Reaction to the Book:  I thought that this was a cute book, not anything special, but it was still good.  I thought the pictures were cute, but I don't know that I would have given it a caldecott winner.

Potential Problems:  The only problem with this book is that Olivia paints on the wall and gets in trouble for it.

Recommendations:  I don’t know that I would specifically recommend this book to anyone because it wasn’t anything special.