Name: Tales of Oliver Pig
ISBN: 9780140365498

Jean Van Leeuwen

Five adventures of Oliver Pig with his family.

Tales of Oliver Pig

Sarah Sammis

Sean and Harriet love it when I read a story to both of them. Their favorite type of story to share is one about siblings. A recent story that we enjoyed together is Tales of Oliver Pig by Jean Van Leeuwen and illustrated by Arnold Lobel.

Oliver is about five and his sister Amanda is about one. Their closeness in age to Sean and Harriet added to their enjoyment of the book. Oliver has great plans and Amanda wants to do what her big brother is doing but she sometimes gets in the way. Oliver and Amanda need to learn how to play together.

The book is divided into five chapters and each one stands alone as a complete story. The chapters are:

 * Baking Day
 * A Bad Day
 * Grandmother's Visit
 * Snowsuits
 * Is It Oliver?

"Baking Day" tells about how Oliver, Amanda and their mother bake cookies on a rainy day. Sean liked this story since he and I have loved baking together since he was a toddler. "A Bad Day" is a cautionary tale of how hard it can be to share with a rambunctious toddler. "Grandmother's Visit" reminded Sean of the many trips his grandparents have made. "Snowsuits" shows how hard it can be to get two young children ready to go outside in inclement weather; I think I found it funnier than either Sean or Harriet did. The last story, "Is It Oliver?" is cute story of Oliver playing games before bed with his father. Since Sean and Ian do that too, Sean enjoyed re-reading this story with him.

Tales of Oliver Pig is just one in a long series of books. We checked out the book from the library but I will be keeping the books in mind for future presents.

Tales of Oliver Pig

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