Olivia Saves the Circus
by Ian Falconer

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Book Reviews of Olivia Saves the Circus

Book Review: Olivia's Mind and Body Soar!
Summary: 5 Stars

This book is superb for prereaders as well as beginning readers. The wonderful charcoal and gouache illustrations make the story easy to follow and memorize for the nonreader, and provide helpful clues to the words for the new reader. My guess is that while this book will appeal to both girls and boys, very few girls will fail to be charmed by its profile of a very self-confident young lady pig.

If you loved Olivia, you will probably be delighted with Olivia Saves the Circus. If you haven't read Olivia, Ian Falconer does a nice job of establishing Olivia's personality in this book's beginning so that you can enjoy Olivia Saves the Circus without having read Olivia. The combination of Ian Falconer's words and illustrations come together to create many subtle effects that many will not notice until the fourth or fifth reading.

I think of Olivia as Miss Piggy in a family, and Olivia carries on those qualities again here. Olivia is independent, self-confident, and unfazed by anything.

On the inside of the front and back covers, Olivia "walks" the cat by bodily carrying the cat in and out of an area behind two doors, while leaving both doors wide open.

In the opening scene, Olivia is making breakfast. "Before school, Olivia likes to make pancakes for her new little brother, William, and her old little brother, Ian." "This is a big help to her mother." The two accompanying illustrations show two happy little boys chowing down . . . and then a kitchen sink area covered with dirty pots and pans with spills everywhere!

Next, Olivia gets ready for school, disliking her plain gray plaid and white uniform. "Of course you can always accessorize." And she adds red ribbons to her ears, a red pocketbook, red and white tights and undershirt with the arms showing, a red back pack and a red helmet. Red clothes are strewn all over her room. She heads to school on her little scooter, "Beep, beep -- coming through."

This is her day to tell about her summer vacation. Two events happened. "One day my mother took Ian and me to the circus." "But when we got there, all the circus people were out sick with ear infections." "Luckily I knew how to do everything."

Olivia is shown riding into the big top on the head of a an elephant leading a string of others. She takes her clothes off and uses a marker to be the Tattooed Lady. She is the Olivia the Lion Tamer, by roaring at the lion and cowing it. Next, she appears as Olivia, the Tight-rope Walker. "And I walked on stilts and juggled and was Olivia the Clown and rode a unicycle."

Her biggest event involved being Flying Olivia on the trapeze, who fell to a trampoline (becoming Queen of the Trampoline), bounced up and down, and flew back up onto the trapeze to complete her aerial performance. These six pages are brilliantly combined. You start with the two trapeze pages (numbers one and six in the sequence) facing each other, then when you open the two pages, you will find the connecting four pages (numbers two through five in the sequence) involving the trampoline. Children will go wild for this section!

"And that's how I saved the circus, and now I am famous."

The summer's second event was less dramatic. "Then one time my dad took me sailing. The End."

"Was that true?" was Olivia's teacher's question. "Pretty true." "All true?" "Pretty all true." "Are you sure, Olivia?"

"To the best of my recollection."

Arriving home, Olivia's mother asks her what went on in school that day. "Nothing." (Do you every hear that?)

When it's time to go to bed, Olivia isn't sleepy. Her mother cautions her not to jump on the bed, and then catches Olivia doing in mid-air. "Who do you think you are -- Queen of the Trampoline?" "Maybe."

As you can see, this book deals with reality and fantasy. To make the separation clearer to the young reader, Olivia is garbed in red whenever real events are occurring and in pink when fantasy is involved.

All children should be encouraged to use their imaginations, and this book gives parents a chance to discuss when and where it's appropriate to share fantasies. Certainly, fantasy shouldn't be passed off as reality as Olivia tries to do here. I also liked the way the book shows how Olivia uses the events in her daily life as a springboard for her day dreams. While reading this book together with your child, you can develop a joint fantasy involving some ordinary object or event. You might even enjoy writing your own Olivia story with your child about what Olivia did on another school vacation, building on your child's experiences, interests, and imagination.

Olivia has a picture of Ms. Eleanor Roosevelt in her bedroom. Be sure to take some time to introduce Ms. Roosevelt to your child, and to explain why Olivia might admire this great person. What other great people have you told your child about?

And that's all, folks . . . to the best of my recollection (I had to put in that little adult humor here about famous peoples' memories under oath).

Summary of Olivia Saves the Circus

• rode on a unicycle
• jumped on a trampoline
• juggled five balls!
• tamed lions
• and flew through the air.

Step into the ring with Olivia, where the lights are dim, the color soft, and a little girl's imagination is the main attraction.

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