Olivia

Olivia is an active little pig who spends her mornings trying on all of her clothes and accessories, her sunny days making massive sandcastles and her rainy days going to the museum and painting on the walls of her home (with a time-out consequence, of course!). She has a quirky personality plus a big imagination, and it's easy to like Olivia, no matter how tiring she can be!

Falconer's illustrations are clean and engaging, and I like how he mixes medias and puts other artworks into his own story. He mostly uses blacks, red and greys in his illustrations, and the red really makes the story pop.

Kids can identify with Olivia's big personality and her fantasies. When I read this to a group of kids, the only problem that came up was their multiple questions about why she moves the cat in the morning. In the book, when Olivia gets up in the morning, she moves the cat around twice. It's just something funny that she does, but the preschools I was reading to wanted to know exactly why she moved the cat; they got a little hung up on that question. I suggest having a good, funny comment to say about the cat-moving if you decide to read this book to a group. 'Olivia' is a lot of fun, and most kids will really enjoy about this little pig and learning about her in this book and the other books in the Olivia series.