Olivia series

byIan Falconer
PublisherHebei Education Press
Published January 2021

Ages 3-6 years old

About

American Caldecott Medal Picture Book-Olivia is versatile, quirky, and has her own set of ideas for everything. Red, bold and black are Olivia's classic colors and are very popular among adults and children all over the world.

Olivia is a little pig who is good at many things. The one thing she is good at is tiring people out, often even tiring herself out! She would put on her mother's lipstick, look in the mirror in her mother's high heels, and scare her younger brother. If she goes out, she will take out all her clothes and wear them again. On sunny days, her mother will take her to the beach, where she will tan herself like a big hot dog; on rainy days, she will visit museums. She liked to walk straight to Degas's "Ballet Rehearsal", which was her favorite painting, and she imagined that she could one day become a ballet dancer. But there was one painting that she always couldn't understand, which was Pollack's "Autumn Rhythm No. 30". She told her mother that it would only take me five minutes to paint an identical painting. When she got home, she really started drawing on the wall...

Parents who have read "Olivia" can easily feel the same way: Olivia is their little baby! At the beginning of the cover, we see a full-body frontal image of Olivia, and then as we turn the page, Olivia's various clothes and equipment are shown in front of us, as well as her various expressions and movements, and then her family. We feel that Olivia has become more and more familiar and her image is becoming more and more fleshed-out, but looking back, Ian has drawn almost nothing else except these. He even did it all using only three colors: black, white and red. In this way, the painter magically focuses everyone's attention on little Olivia. We don't have to worry about when and where the story takes place, and this also makes the children more naturally think of themselves.

About the Author

Ian has drawn countless illustrations and covers for The New Yorker magazine. He has also done costume and stage design for the New York City Ballet, the San Francisco Opera and the Royal Opera House. "Olivia Is" Ian's children's book was an instant success. Not only did it rank fourth among the best-selling picture books of the year in Publishers Weekly, it is still on the New York Times' weekly best-selling picture book list.

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