Patrick Spaziante

Jodie Shepherd

Assigned the less-than-leading role of "Cow Number 2" in her school's play, Olivia manages to secure her place in the spotlight after all.

OLIVIA Acts Out

Sarah Sammis

Apparently Olivia the Pig now has her own television series. There are books now based on that series, or tied to it as part of a marketing campaign (depending on how you look at it) and Jodie Shepherd (who also writes a number of Backyardigan books) has been brought on board to write these books. There's also a new illustrator, Patrick Spaziante. Olivia Acts Out is one of their collaborations.

In this book, Olivia and her class are putting on a play. She wants to be the star but she ends up being a cow. Olivia goes through all sorts of efforts to put on the most memorable performance she can.

On the surface the book looks like an Olivia book and the plot basics are like an Olivia book but it lacks the heart and soul of an Olivia book as written and illustrated by Ian Falconer. Olivia isn't quite as over the top. She's not as spunky. The illustrations while more colorful are lacking the energy of Falconer's minimalist pallet (black, white, red and maybe a little green).

We bought this copy without even paying attention to who had written it. In the future I think I will steer clear of the Olivias that aren't written by Falconer.

OLIVIA Acts Out

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