I will always rate you, if you are good enough to rate me, thank you! Happy Christmas everyone, I'l...
I will always rate you, if you are good enough to rate me, thank you! Happy Christmas everyone, I'll catch up with all my alerts and return rates next year!!!.....xx
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Olivia is a book that was given to one of our daughters by her nursery at the end of last term. It quickly established itself as a favourite over the summer holidays.
Olivia is a small pig with large ears. She is lively, energetic, precocious, opinionated and feisty. She specialises in tiring people out – even herself! In many ways, she reminds me of our two girls….
This book doesn’t really have a storyline as such; it’s more of a “Day in the life of…”
Olivia likes to try on ALL her clothes when deciding what to wear in the morning. She likes to build very impressive sandcastles but she doesn’t like to nap. She’s partial to Degas and his paintings of ballerinas, but she’s pretty disparaging about Modern Art. She gets sent to the stairs for a “think” when she’s naughty and demands LOTS of bedtime stories.
This is the first children’s book written by Ian Falconer. He also illustrated the book and has now written an entire series of Olivia books. Olivia even has her own website (http://www.oliviathepiglet.com/) – not bad for a small piglet! The illustrations are clever, almost exclusively black and white with splashes of red (but not quite as dramatic as Schindler’s List!), they are striking and very appealing. On some pages there are numerous small pictures which give lots to talk about with your child. When Olivia visits the museum there is a picture which is an actual extract from a painting by Degas – our girls were thrilled when we visited the Burrell Collection recently and they were able to identify a canvas by the same artist. The facial expressions of both Olivia and her little brother, Ian, are very comical. Ian is a funny wee character with huge ears and a stripey jumper; he makes our girls laugh as he tries to copy his big sister. There isn’t much text in the book, just a few words on some of the pages, but there is plenty of scope to extend the story by discussing the various pictures. The text is black on a pale background, distinct from the illustrations and it stands out very well on the pages. The vocabulary is very straightforward and uncomplicated and I imagine that this book could be used as a confidence builder for new readers. The book concludes with Olivia heading to bed – always a bonus for a bedtime book, I feel!
My only gripe with this book is that, to my mind, there is a typo in it – which for a book with so little text does seem a bit shoddy. See what you think: Olivia sees a painting at the museum and reckons she can do better; “As soon as she gets home she has to go”. Surely that should read “she has a go”? (Typo or not, I think my way makes more sense!) This book does seem expensive at full price but children’s books do tend to be expensive these days and there are lots of bargains to be had on Amazon, eBay and at car boot sales etc.
All in all, we love Olivia and her cheeky wee ways. This book is recommended, particularly if you can get it for less than its RRP.
Published by Simon and Schuster ISBN: 0-689-86088-9 RRP £6.99 From £1.04 plus P&P on Amazon
(As aside, when we were in Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art last week, one of our daughters considered an abstract painting for a few seconds and then uttered a direct quotation from this book, “I could do that in about five minutes” – much to the amusement of the other patrons!)
(Please note that the picture that Ciao are displaying for this product is for a completely different book!)
Pictures of Olivia - Ian Falconer
Olivia - the correct cover for the book
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