Olivia Saves the Circus – Ian Falconer

More in the Series – Olivia
“More in the Series” scores the other books in a series where one (or more) of the books have made it into the 1001 Books list. Mostly because I’m a bit of a completionist. 

POINTS: 4 out of 10.

Bechdel: 1 point
Variety of characters: 0 points
Good story:  2 points
Discretionary ideological points: 1 point

This was our second foray into the Olivia books, and she’s just as charming the second time through. Once again, the book is a tribute to the power of imagination. Olivia tells a story in class about going to the circus and saving the day, playing all the parts in the circus because everyone is sick “with ear infections”.

On being asked by her teacher if it’s true, Olivia says yes, “to the best of my recollection”. The teacher looks mildly exasperated, as if this is the sort of conversation they have a lot.

I’m the parent to a child with an extremely active imagination, who frequently tells me stories that are “really true, Mommy”, and only when I push him on it, does he respond, “not really, but we’re just pretending”. So I am familiar with this sort of thing. 😉

My little storyteller was quite taken with this book. When I asked him if he thought her story was true he responded, “No, I think it’s just pretend.” But I definitely felt like he related.

The book kind of passes the Bechdel, if Mummy qualifies as a name, but since it’s a kids’ book, I’m counting it. (If you’re not a parent you may not yet have discovered that to kids you’re always only ever “Christopher’s Mum!”. It’s a thing. Kids seem to tend to see adults only in relation to other kids a lot of the time.) There’s no diversity to speak of.

I love the gentle, smiling portrayal of imagination. It’s great. The imagery is very simple, much like the first book, but it works.

Very  cute.

 

Olivia – Ian Falconer

POINTS: 4 out of 10.

Bechdel: 1 point
Variety of characters: 0 points
Good story:  2 points
Discretionary ideological points: 1 point

Olivia is a pretty cute book about a rambunctious little pig-girl. She has boundless energy which results in her frequently wearing people out (most notably her mother). I’ve given it the Bechdel, even though “Mummy” isn’t a real name, because it kind of is in kid-world. All the characters are pigs though, so there is no real way to measure diversity.

It’s neat though. Olivia is a fiery little girl who gets into mischief, paints on walls when she shouldn’t, makes truly epic sandcastles, and obviously has quite an imagination. There’s quite a lot to her, given how simple the book is, which is pretty cool.

And it has that “you’re a ratbag but I love you” thing going on between her and her Mummy, which is one of my favourite things. The relationships between Olivia and her parents, and her little brother Ian feel really genuine and believable, which is always nice. In real life even the best families sometimes get sick and tired of each other, but there is always that underlying love. And that’s the important thing.

The illustrations are fairly sparce (lots of white space!) and simple, but they still manage to complement the text, and add to the story.

It’s a cute book. Worth a read.