Fiction - Animals, Children - Fiction & Literature

Olivia Forms a Band

Name: Olivia Forms a Band
Author: Ian Falconer
ISBN: 9781416980377

by Ian Falconer

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Overview

Everyone's favorite Caldecott-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.

Synopsis

Child Magazine

Ever the pig-with-a-plan, Olivia fashions a one-man band when she learns there won't be one at the evening's fireworks show. Her scheme involves bribing her brothers with milk and cookies for their toy instruments and rigging them together with Daddy's suspenders-a theft that reveals her stunned father's polka-dot boxers. Witty charcoal drawings with dollops of color highlight Olivia's irrepressible antics, from trying Mom's scarlet lipstick to sporting candy-striped tights under the Supreme Court Justice robe she wears in her dreams. Nothing is beyond this precocious piglet. (Ages 4 to 6)
Child magazine's Best Children's Book Awards 2006

About the Author, Ian Falconer

Stage designer and artist Ian Falconer didn't initially set out to write books for children, but an impromptu gift for his young niece became the adored Olivia series. "She's not really a bratty character, but she does get away with a lot," Ian Falconer admits in our video interview when describing the precocious piglet that stars in his bestselling books.

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Editorials

Children's Literature - Carolyn Mott Ford and Marilyn Courtot

Olivia dreams grandly, as children do and children should. When she is told the family will be going to see fireworks in the evening, she decides that there must be a band. She boldly proclaims, "We'll be the band!" The expressions on the faces of her parents and the piglets make it clear that Olivia is on her own, so Olivia declares, "I'll be the band." The illustrations of her efforts to collect everything she needs are hilarious. After she finds just the right outfit to wear, Olivia begins to practice. The noise has the family holding their ears and the cat's hair standing on end. Although Olivia is perfectly happy with the sound and convinced that she sounds like a real band, she decides not to bring the band instruments to the fireworks. She does primp and pose while getting ready to head out and, finally, the family leaves to have a picnic. The sunset is striking and they have a wonderful, but exhausting, evening. Olivia sleeps soundly that night, having yet another dream. Hmm, Olivia on the Supreme Court? This really is the only part of the story that dates the book because it is not close to the composition of the court, even as recent as 2009. This version of the book comes with a CD read by Dame Edna and it is delightful. The music really does accentuate the drama and provide youngsters with a whole new experience, and at that age they really will not know the composition of the Supreme Court. Reviewer: Carolyn Mott Ford and Marilyn Courtot

From The Critics

Publishers Weekly

After demonstrating that she could perform in not one but all of the star attractions under the Big Top in Olivia Saves the Circus, the hoofed heroine here proves that she can be a one-piglet band. When Olivia discovers that there will be no band to accompany the summer fireworks, she announces, "I know! We'll be the band!" Once more, Falconer's mastery of detail and pacing results in outlandish comedy. On the left, a stop-action scene conveys the family's response-a wide-eyed look of panic; on the right-hand page, cat and dog take off in opposite directions, baby William crawls away, and Olivia's father hides behind a newspaper. " `Fine,' said Olivia. `I'll be the band.' " Falconer again uses his signature vignettes to comical effect in a kind of comic strip succession, as Olivia, sporting a red polka-dot union suit, gives baby William a bottle in exchange for his xylophone, and trades toddler Ian a cookie jar for his drum; a show-stopping sextet of spot illustrations depicts Olivia removing her father's suspenders to reveal red polka-dot boxers ("Look, Daddy, we're twins"). When Olivia emerges as a multi-tasking piglet in a sky-blue striped unitard, Daddy's suspenders (they hold the xylophone and drum in place) and a pot lid on each foot, a gatefold exhibits fantasy images of Olivia as drummer, flautist, tuba player and more, beneath four-plus measures of classic marching music. The band may not have made it to the picnic, but Olivia gets the last laugh-and so do readers. Another crowd-pleasing performance for the porcine starlet and her creator. Ages 3-7. (June) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Children's Literature

Olivia dreams grandly, as children do and children should. When she is told the family will be going to see fireworks in the evening, she decides that there must be a band. She boldly proclaims, "We'll be the band!" The expressions on the faces of her parents and the piglets make it clear that Olivia is on her own, so Olivia declares, "I'll be the band." The illustrations of her efforts to collect everything she needs are hilarious. After she finds just the right outfit to wear, Olivia begins to practice. The noise has the family holding their ears and the cat's hair standing on end. Although Olivia is perfectly happy with the sound and convinced that she sounds like a real band, she decides not to bring the band instruments to the fireworks. She does primp and pose while getting ready to head out and, finally, the family leaves to have a picnic. The sunset is striking and they have a wonderful, but exhausting, evening. Olivia sleeps soundly that night, having yet another dream. H'm, Olivia on the Supreme Court? Why not? 2006, Anne Schwartz Books/Atheneum/Simon & Schuster, Ages 3 to 7.
—Carolyn Mott Ford

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 3-The latest escapades of a precocious piglet and the mother who attempts to both nurture and civilize her opens on the morning of a fireworks display. The charcoal-and-gouache scenes with their signature red highlights on uncluttered white backgrounds depict Olivia's family, but readers are soon treated to a series of surprises that include the introduction of a new color (turquoise), collage elements, a fold-out, and full bleeds. When the protagonist declares that a band is essential for the evening's entertainment and that, lacking one, she'll fill in, her mother's thought bubble fills with a photograph of a leaping rock band; Olivia's depicts the marching variety. The fold-out starts with the heroine as the sole majorette and reveals a full-size band of Olivias, with the score of a Sousa-like march printed boldly above. Falconer builds to a crescendo of two and a half pages that portray a picnic at sunset followed by a dazzling display of feathery fireworks. These compositions are predominantly charcoal; the family members, backs to readers, are outlined in the reflected yellow glow of an ascending rocket. The palette returns to the original color scheme in the denouement, a bedtime moment to which all ages will relate. With perfectly nuanced dialogue and a mixture of comical and artful scenes, Falconer explores the logic, invention, and humor emanating from a talented youngster, serious about the mission of the moment.-Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Falconer adds a new color for this fourth offering in readers' long-standing love affair with the inimitable Olivia-and she still rules. The occasion is a family outing to a fireworks display. Disappointed that there will be no band, Olivia decides to make her own. Deserted by her disobliging family, she spends the day hilariously rounding up all the instruments necessary to turn herself into a one-pig band. "To Olivia, she sounded just like a real band." (Cue the double-page fold-out in "Tempo marziale.") At departure time, Olivia decides to abandon the band and apply makeup. Amazing makeup. This evokes a rare, blunt response from Everymom: " . . . you're gorgeous! Now wipe that glop off your face." After the most glorious of sunsets and magical fireworks displays, the exhausted family is home to bed, where Olivia dreams yet another BIG dream with herself seated self-assuredly in-well, we won't spoil the surprise. So consummately consistent are Falconer's characterizations and so perceptive are Olivia's constant fans, that every deft facial nuance will be met with squeals of approval for the most popular pig in America-and her long-suffering mother. (Picture book. 4+)