Rating: 
Summary: We love Olivia
Review: I have a three yr. old who adores Olivia. Each night an Olivia book (or three) are in her stack of what she would like read to her. Ian Falconer has a wonderful wit and the pictures in the book are beautiful.
For those who think this book advocates lying and that the female leads are not strong enough role models: It's a children's book! It is meant to encourage imagination and inspire children to read and the love of reading.
We will continue to read this wonderful story and encourage others to do the same.
Rating:
Summary: Charming and hilarious
Review: I just bought this book for my 3-year old nephew for Christmas, but I was tempted to keep it for myself. Olivia is a precocious, intelligent, and very imaginative young pig. In this book she is called on to share her weekend activities with her class. She describes an amazing day at the circus filled with spills, thrills, and all manner of exciting derring-do as Olivia saves the day when all the circus performers are out sick. If you like the Eloise books, try Olivia; you'll like her.I recently saw my nephew, and he insisted on bringing the book out and "reading" it to me. He loves the book so much that he has asked to have it read to him before bed almost every night. He knew whole passages by heart and recited them to me word for word. It was so much fun listening to him so excited over a book. Reading to your kids is a sure way to help them develop language skills. That, and it's so much fun!
Rating: 
Summary: excites the imagination of toddlers
Review: I understand why some parents do not put Olivia on their bookshelves. She's a really bad influence. For one, she's a flagrant liar. I can't abide her haughty attitude. After reading this book, my daughter got ahold of my black eyeliner and decided to become "the tattoo lady." But that's the hook right there... for better or for worse, the Olivia books have excited her imagination unlike any other picture books we've read so far.
Not bad for a story about a pig.
Rating:
Summary: Even better than the first Olivia book
Review: Just like the first one, this book about Olivia, a little female piglet growing up in a human family environment with her parents and two brothers. This time, Olivia recalls her imaginary trip to circus, where she saved the show deputizing for all the performers who were off duty. The writing is witty, clever and funny, and not just for parents. Writing books for children is a very tricky business, and "treating them like adults" is the most difficult of all approaches. Many writers try that and end up with pretentious and overly complex stuff which bores a child after the first three sentences. Well, this book is not like that - my daughter loved it and your children will too. Elegant, laconic and very cute illustrations let the child's imagination roam wild; the narrative resonates with the life of every family. You will not regret this buy for a moment.
Rating:
Summary: Olivia is great
Review: My 3 year old loves the Olivia books. I recommend them all as they are even enjoyable for the parent to read over and over. I would like to comment on the reviewers who insist on telling in detail what the entire book is about. What is that all about? I thought we were to give our opinions, not retell the story.
Rating:
Summary: Olivia is one of a kind!
Review: Not since Wilbur of "Charlotte's Web" fame was labeled "Some Pig" have we seen a porcine protagonist as endearing as Olivia. This self-assured swine knows she's different than the rest of the sty and lives her uniqueness. In "Olivia Saves the Circus", our heroine is confronted with the dreaded task of sharing her summer vacation with her class. Not content to live in reality, she fabricates a story in which she saves the day by taking on the roles of the trapeze artist, tattooed lady, and "Queen of the Trampoline" when the regular circus performers are done in by that scourge of children, ear infections. And despite her incredulous teacher, Olivia has the confidence to stick with her story. Does she realize it's an embellishment, if not a complete fraud? Well, yeah, but that's Olivia. If she believes it, it's real. Ian Falconer has created a totally unique character in Olivia that also pays homage to previous literary little girls of the headstrong variety. She has sense of style outside the realms of reality (witness the Eleanor Roosevelt poster on her wall), but it's one that will appeal to both adults and children. If there is any hesitation here (enough for the loss of a star) it's that usually dreamers like Olivia get some sort of comeuppance that helps them learn, but also allows them to stay dreamers. Instead, Olivia always manages to get a pass on correction. It's the world that is out of step, not her. Some might question how good a message that is to send to young children, while others might feel that cultivating a sense of the eccentric is needed for allowing children to explore their own personalities. Still, no matter what you think, Olivia is here to stay and should prove to be a classic character.
Rating: 
Summary: There are better spunky imaginative kid stories
Review: On a first, not-so-critical read, the story was enjoyable. The pictures, in black and white accessorized with red (see cover for example), are charming, serene and elegant. The poster of Eleanor Roosevelt in Olivia's bedroom can actually make it worth reading and is definitely a five star detail. The spotlighting of a different circus act on each page was great for my 2 1/2 year old who loves the circus. Olivia is a spunky and imaginative child. She is also spoiled and obnoxious with a badly stereotyped mother (passive) and female teacher (presumably anti-imagination and -fun). There is definitely a need for positive assertive and independent creative female protaginists in children's stories but there is no need to assume that the only alternatives are passive or killjoy older females. The pejorative portrayl of the teacher is enough to make this book a definite do not read. Given the problems with education and the images that children already receive, the last thing we need to do is unnecessarily make it worse by propogating more negative stereotypes about school. Olivia's attitude in responding to her teacher and her mother is unfortunately too realistic - there's no need to assume that such obnoxious behavior is admirable as long as one can be clever and individualistic. Adults need to take responsibility for the character traits that we are willing to validate as admirable and provide "people" in books and other media that we want children to emulate. For truly more admirable spunky and creative girls, try Pippi Longstocking, Amelia Bedelia, Pirate Pink, or Treva ("Trouble with Trolls"). The Caldecott Award is given to honor artists/illustrators, which also happens to be a key component to books for very young children. And this book is beautifully and uniquely illustrated. But given the nature of our society and the problems that parents and children must face, we need to be more diligent in what we expose our children to and that means being willing to take a stand and say no to books that don't remove the pejorative stereotypes and negative values. There are literally 1000s of books out there for young children. It's actually very easy to find really good stories-- with beautiful illustrations - so there's no need to have to settle for this story.
Rating:
Summary: Olivia's Mind and Body Soar!
Review: Reading to your child is great for both of you. Your child will learn new things, become a better reader, and have an increased interest in reading. You will both enjoy a stronger bond as well. Olivia Saves the Circus is a fine book for these purposes. This book is superb for prereaders as well as beginning readers. The wonderful charcoal and gouache illustrations make the story easy to follow and memorize for the nonreader, and provide helpful clues to the words for the new reader. My guess is that while this book will appeal to both girls and boys, very few girls will fail to be charmed by its profile of a very self-confident young lady pig. If you loved Olivia, you will probably be delighted with Olivia Saves the Circus. If you haven't read Olivia, Ian Falconer does a nice job of establishing Olivia's personality in this book's beginning so that you can enjoy Olivia Saves the Circus without having read Olivia. The combination of Ian Falconer's words and illustrations come together to create many subtle effects that many will not notice until the fourth or fifth reading. I think of Olivia as Miss Piggy in a family, and Olivia carries on those qualities again here. Olivia is independent, self-confident, and unfazed by anything. On the inside of the front and back covers, Olivia "walks" the cat by bodily carrying the cat in and out of an area behind two doors, while leaving both doors wide open. In the opening scene, Olivia is making breakfast. "Before school, Olivia likes to make pancakes for her new little brother, William, and her old little brother, Ian." "This is a big help to her mother." The two accompanying illustrations show two happy little boys chowing down . . . and then a kitchen sink area covered with dirty pots and pans with spills everywhere! Next, Olivia gets ready for school, disliking her plain gray plaid and white uniform. "Of course you can always accessorize." And she adds red ribbons to her ears, a red pocketbook, red and white tights and undershirt with the arms showing, a red back pack and a red helmet. Red clothes are strewn all over her room. She heads to school on her little scooter, "Beep, beep -- coming through." This is her day to tell about her summer vacation. Two events happened. "One day my mother took Ian and me to the circus." "But when we got there, all the circus people were out sick with ear infections." "Luckily I knew how to do everything." Olivia is shown riding into the big top on the head of a an elephant leading a string of others. She takes her clothes off and uses a marker to be the Tattooed Lady. She is the Olivia the Lion Tamer, by roaring at the lion and cowing it. Next, she appears as Olivia, the Tight-rope Walker. "And I walked on stilts and juggled and was Olivia the Clown and rode a unicycle." Her biggest event involved being Flying Olivia on the trapeze, who fell to a trampoline (becoming Queen of the Trampoline), bounced up and down, and flew back up onto the trapeze to complete her aerial performance. These six pages are brilliantly combined. You start with the two trapeze pages (numbers one and six in the sequence) facing each other, then when you open the two pages, you will find the connecting four pages (numbers two through five in the sequence) involving the trampoline. Children will go wild for this section! "And that's how I saved the circus, and now I am famous." The summer's second event was less dramatic. "Then one time my dad took me sailing. The End." "Was that true?" was Olivia's teacher's question. "Pretty true." "All true?" "Pretty all true." "Are you sure, Olivia?" "To the best of my recollection." Arriving home, Olivia's mother asks her what went on in school that day. "Nothing." (Do you every hear that?) When it's time to go to bed, Olivia isn't sleepy. Her mother cautions her not to jump on the bed, and then catches Olivia doing in mid-air. "Who do you think you are -- Queen of the Trampoline?" "Maybe." As you can see, this book deals with reality and fantasy. To make the separation clearer to the young reader, Olivia is garbed in red whenever real events are occurring and in pink when fantasy is involved. All children should be encouraged to use their imaginations, and this book gives parents a chance to discuss when and where it's appropriate to share fantasies. Certainly, fantasy shouldn't be passed off as reality as Olivia tries to do here. I also liked the way the book shows how Olivia uses the events in her daily life as a springboard for her day dreams. While reading this book together with your child, you can develop a joint fantasy involving some ordinary object or event. You might even enjoy writing your own Olivia story with your child about what Olivia did on another school vacation, building on your child's experiences, interests, and imagination. Olivia has a picture of Ms. Eleanor Roosevelt in her bedroom. Be sure to take some time to introduce Ms. Roosevelt to your child, and to explain why Olivia might admire this great person. What other great people have you told your child about? And that's all, folks . . . to the best of my recollection (I had to put in that little adult humor here about famous peoples' memories under oath).
Rating: 
Summary: Lying is okay?
Review: The book is funny, but it advocates lying. It makes lying 'cute' and does not explain the consequences of lying. I will not want my daughter to read it and think that lying done right is acceptable.
Rating:
Summary: Lying is okay?
Review: This book teaches lying. It is not as good as the first.
We will keep it because we like Olivia in general. But, like another reviewer, I feel as though I need to explain many of Olivia's behaviors to my child. ("Right now Olivia is pretending", "She should have told the teacher the truth" and "Olivia and her Mommy need to spend some time together talking") I wish Mr.Falconer had been able to make these explinations for me... We are still holding out hope for the Olivia and Missing Toy.
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