Olivia Helps with Christmas

by Ian Falconer Narrated by Dame Edna Everage

Overview

Everyone's favorite piglet helps to make the holiday season brighter than ever in this board book edition of an Olivia favorite.

...Not a piglet was stirring. Well, maybe just one.

Christmas is coming, and Olivia is incredibly busy. She has to wait for Santa, make sure Dad sets up the tree, watch Mom make the Christmas dinner, oversee the care with which the stockings are hung, and, of course, OPEN HER PRESENTS! Whew, being helpful during the holidays is exhausting!

Lovingly told and lavishly illustrated, this board book edition of Olivia Helps with Christmas is the perfect stuffing for any stocking.

Editorial Reviews

Olivia is an energetic, very feminine porcine who, like any other anthropomorphic pig, eagerly awaits the holidays each year. This Christmas is different. Our corpulent little piglet can barely contain herself as she and her parents prepare for the big day. Olivia Helps with Christmas will escalate the excitement of any holiday countdown. More magical than any visions of sugarplums dancing.

Julie Just

Falconer's clever illustrations—in charcoal, gouache and photo montage—tell us one thing while his story is telling us another…Olivia charms by throwing herself into whatever she does…
—The New York Times

Kirkus Reviews

Oh, Olivia. We thought Christmas at your house would be much more fun. Despite several amusing moments in this latest offering about Olivia the precocious pig, Falconer has neglected to fully develop the narrative line of the plot or to further Olivia's development as a distinct character. She participates in some holiday preparations with her usual flair, such as chopping off the top of the Christmas tree for a table decoration, but other incidents fall flat, as when Olivia struggles and falls while trying to use her new Christmas skis. In a rather cheap joke, she feeds blueberry pie to her baby brother, causing immediate blue vomit, which will of course provoke laughter from youngsters but has nothing to do with Christmas. Several gatefold pages extend the holiday happenings without adding much humor; the final spread adds some sparkle with Olivia's grandiose dream of a scene from The Nutcracker. Falconer's charcoal and gouache illustrations are clever, as always, though it's sometimes hard to distinguish between Olivia and her brother when they alternate between red and green clothing. The overall effect has neither Christmas cheer nor the satisfying, saucy humor of previous Olivia adventures. (Picture book. 3-6)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171147426
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	01/06/2009
Series:	Olivia the Pig Series
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	Up to 4 Years

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