{"id":194,"date":"2024-12-07T17:31:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-07T17:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/?p=194"},"modified":"2025-05-20T20:51:20","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T20:51:20","slug":"olivia-helps-with-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/?p=194","title":{"rendered":"Olivia Helps with Christmas by Ian Falconer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Happy Holidays! Dr. Toughlove has selected Olivia Helps with Christmas<\/strong><\/em> for her December 2024 review. Enjoy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The holiday season has officially arrived, so Dr. Toughlove thought it was time to review one of her all-time favorite books, \u201cOlivia helps with Christmas\u201d written and illustrated by Ian Falconer. If a book about an Olivia character sounds familiar, it may be because Dr. Toughlove reviewed the first book in this series, aptly named \u201cOlivia\u201d in May, 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around, our dear Olivia (who is a lovable and theatrical pig with a wild sense of humor and fashion sense), is helping her family get ready for Christmas. A tree needs to be trimmed, lights must be strung, stockings need to be hung, and the Christmas Eve table wants to be set. Olivia, in true melodramatic fashion admonishes her father for attempting to light a fire in the fireplace (\u201cDADDY! WHAT COULD YOU BE THINKING? DO YOU WANT TO COOK SANTA?\u201d p. 16).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Ian Falconer\u2019s \u201cOlivia\u201d series, he uses a technique called stark minimalism. Typically, his illustrations are black, white and gray with a splash of color. Sometimes black and white images are used to depict a scene or person that Olivia is thinking about. In \u201cOlivia helps with Christmas\u201d Falconer uses a bit more color \u2013 mostly red and green with a bit of yellow and orange thrown in. This change is subtle, but it conveys a festive feeling that is consistent with the Christmas theme. It also displays Olivia\u2019s effervescent personality in all of its splendor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Dr. Toughlove had to use three words to describe \u201cOlivia helps with Christmas\u201d she would say this book is whimsical, charming and downright hilarious. Dr. Toughlove doesn\u2019t want to give the story away, but let it suffice to say that Christmas day at Olivia\u2019s house is filled with delight, joy and a bit of drama. Olivia wouldn\u2019t have it any other way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you enjoy Olivia\u2019s antics, Dr. Toughlove would suggest that you read the rest of the books in Ian Falconer\u2019s Olivia series. While each book is unique, Olivia\u2019s charm, wit and fanciful imagination always makes an appearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOlivia helps with Christmas\u201d is appropriate for children aged 2-6, and is available at the Queen Anne\u2019s County Library.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy Holidays! Dr. Toughlove has selected Olivia Helps with Christmas for her December 2024 review. Enjoy! The holiday season has officially arrived, so Dr. Toughlove thought it was time to review one of her all-time favorite books, \u201cOlivia helps with Christmas\u201d written and illustrated by Ian Falconer. If a book about an Olivia character sounds […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=194"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":614,"href":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions\/614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolfranksrandall.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}