Bound To Stay Bound

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Bulletin for the Center... - 12/01/2003 Now in her third outing, Olivia (from Olivia, BCCB 11/00, and Olivia Saves the Circus, 11/01), determined as always, insists that her mother make her a new soccer shirt ("Olivia’s uniform comes in a really unattractive green"). By the time the shirt is ready, however, Olivia’s attention has been diverted by another problem: the disappearance of her beloved toy. The intrepid piglet uses all the best detective skills ("She asked her little brother, Ian, ‘WHAT DID YOU DO WITH MY TOY?’"), but the toy remains unfound; come that night, Olivia hears "an awful sound . . . coming from behind the door" ("So, of course, Olivia went inside") and finds the family dog with Olivia’s sadly chewed-up toy. Olivia’s cheered by her father’s promise to get her the "very best toy in the whole world," but she also fixes up her old toy and puts him in bed next to her, forgivingly allowing the dog in on the other side. The digressive tendencies of the narrative are a bit more evident here, since there’s an actual plot that’s being unfolded, and the different motifs and plots don’t quite cohere; nonetheless, there’s plenty of recognizable reality, and Olivia’s still suffused with self-centered charm as she struts through her world. As usual, it’s the illustrations that really showcase her charm as the top-heavy Olivia scampers about her apartment on the tips of her trotters, interrogating and manhandling (pighandling?) anything that she chooses with a high-snouted imperiousness that reliably resembles that of strong-willed small children. The trichromatic palette, which adds green to Olivia’s traditional red and black, helps Olivia’s poor battered toy stand out visually (he looks like he’s had a pretty wild existence even before the dog got him, so Olivia’s ham-handed repair job isn’t that much of an aesthetic come-down), but it’s the smoky blacks that provide the real drama here, especially in the foldout that reveals the source of the slavering shadowed head on the wall (the mischievously chewing pup, of course). The tender-hearted may find it hard to recover from the toy trauma, but Olivia’s legions of fans will still get a kick out of watching the piggy princess go through her paces. - Copyright 2003 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

School Library Journal - 10/01/2003 K-Gr 3-Olivia is back, the indomitable individualist now coaxing her mother to make her a new soccer uniform in red, not the "really unattractive green" of the rest of the team. During the sewing session, Olivia's stuffed animal disappears and the fearless piglet must solve the mystery. She eventually tracks it down, but it is now in pieces, courtesy of the dog. Olivia's tears are surprisingly easily diverted by her father's glib promise from behind the newspaper to replace it with "the very best toy in the whole world," but the independent protagonist resews it herself and even improves on the original. Once again, the illustrations are stylish and witty, now extended by the addition of green to Falconer's trademark charcoal-and-gouache black, white, and red palette. The inclusion of photographic reproductions (the sphinx in a dream and Martha Graham on the bedroom wall) adds a nice contrast, and the endpapers show a comic strip of the little pig trying to get her toy to sit up. The changes in the size of the typeface to indicate volume of speech as Olivia interrogates her little brothers, and as her distress escalates, are hilarious. But the plot meanders a little, and it seems as though Falconer is letting style overtake story. Olivia is in danger of starting to appear more like a bratty bully than the charming nonconformist we know and love. Still, her many fans will enjoy this latest adventure of the piglet turned detective.-Jane Barrer, Washington Square Village Creative Steps, NY Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information. - Copyright 2003 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Booklist - 09/01/2003 *Starred Review* Olivia (2001), the first book about the little piglet, was heavy on charm and light on story. The second, Olivia Saves the Circus (2002), went a bit overboard with its story of this every child’s exaggerating. This book gets everything right; the story is simple yet compelling, and Falconer’s art is as imaginative and inventive as ever. When the story begins, Olivia is mostly concerned with her soccer uniform. It’s green, and she doesn’t like it. Mother works on making a new one in Olivia’s signature red, but by the time she’s finished, Olivia’s attention is focused elsewhere: her toy kitty is missing. Olivia looks everywhere, and she fiercely interrogates her brothers. It’s only after the lights go out during a dark and stormy night that she finds the real culprit. A marvelous foldout reveals the “monster” that captured her “best toy.” As the most successful picture books do, this works on several levels: it’s great for young listeners, who will respond to the action and the art, and for adults, who will smile with recognition at lively Olivia. - Copyright 2003 Booklist.

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