Olivia Forms a Band | Adult and Toddler Humor Vie for Honors with Spectacular Art

Olivia Forms a Band | Another excellent Olivia book

books:

Olivia Forms a Band

	Olivia Forms a Band Atheneum, 2006 - 50 pages average customer review:based on 36 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Everyone's favorite Caldecott Honor-winning porcine diva is back and with fanfare! There are going to be fireworks tonight, and Olivia can hardly wait to hear the band. But when she finds out that there isn't going to be a band, she can't understand why not. How can there be fireworks without a band?! And so Olivia sets to putting a band together herself...all by herself. Using pots, pans, her brother's toys, and even her father's suspenders, Olivia forms a band spectacular enough to startle any audience. Lavishly brought to life in Ian Falconer's signature style, and introducing an eye-catching shade of blue, here is Olivia doing what Olivia does best -- making noise.

for more information click here

Adult and Toddler Humor Vie for Honors with Spectacular Art

To an adult, Olivia in this story displays all of the most frustrating aspects of crossing the generation gap such as obsessing over something that doesn't matter (matching two red socks from a drawer full of seemingly identical socks), insisting on doing something that cannot be easily done (being a one-person band), switching interests at the drop of diaper, not cleaning up after herself despite reminders, taking hyperbole literally, being impatient when something cannot be rushed (like the start of fireworks), and wanting to pursue activities that are too grown-up (such as wearing lipstick).

To a toddler, Olivia is a wunderkind of amazing imagination, ambition, and freshness. Her attention span is about as long as the toddler's, but she has more interesting things on her mind. Her obsessions aren't so different from a toddler's obsessions. She's fussy about her clothes as toddler's often are. She suggests the exciting possibility of veering towards aspects of adulthood, going beyond a youngster walking around in her mother's shoes. She's good at quoting back to her mother things that she said that support Olivia's point, expressing that important desire to be independent.

Of course, the drawings beautifully express the adult-toddler humor at both levels while employing a powerful minimalism. But the minimalism is expanded upon here. To the traditional black, white, and red for Olivia, Ian Falconer adds a turquoise hue for the drawings beginning with Olivia dressing up to be a band. Ian Falconer succeeds in using a variety of techniques to get across loud sound (some musical notes in ff, and seven images of Olivia with different instruments with each image multiplied as though in an echo chamber), Olivia's cleverness and hyperactivity (a series of 10 drawings on two facing pages as Olivia extracts what she needs from her family to make her band instruments, including the removal of her father's much needed suspenders with dire consequences), Olivia's optimism (dreaming of herself as chief justice of the Supreme Court . . . something no little pig has done before), burlesque sequences (three panels of Olivia's mother entering her room, loud noises emerging from the dark, and Olivia's mother wearing broken and misplaced band instruments), and a child's reality (sitting in the dark watching fireworks).

Like all of the best children's books, this one will invite much discussion between parent and child about the pros and cons of what Olivia does that will provide lots of opportunities for gentle teaching and learning.

Strike up the band!

for more information click here

Another excellent Olivia book

Olivia Forms a Band is one of my 3 year old's favorite books. In fact this is our second copy of it because the first one was enjoyed so thoroughly that it fell apart. Falconer has a gift for portraying the endearing and infuriating aspects of children that is appreciated by parents as well as children. The illustrations are terrific.

Olivia forms a band

In this story, Olivia and her family are preparing for a night of watching fireworks. Olivia asks if there will be a band. When she is told there won't be, she decides to make the night perfect by forming a one pig band.

The book is divided into three parts. The first is Olivia's preparation for the night including making her uniform and her band. The second is the actual picnic. The final third is Olivia at home and the consequences of her earlier planning.

Ian Falconer captures perfectly the way in which children can get carried away with their own clever plans and how the parents are often stuck with the aftermath of these crazy schemes.

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

products you might be interested in