Olivia by Ian Falconer

• Title: Olivia
• Author: Ian Falconer
• Publishing: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2000
• Synopsis: This book follows the life of a little pig named Olivia who lives with her mom and dad, little brother Ian and dog Perry. The story discusses how young Olivia likes to do many things and often wears people out. The book continues by discussion Olivia's copy cat little brother Ian and all of the various things that Olivia likes to do throughout her day. The story concludes with Olivia's mom reading her a bedtime story after a long day. Olivia's mom tell Olivia that even though she wears her out, she loves her anyway. 
• The author of this book which is a series gets his inspiration for Olivia from a real life little girl with the same name who is his niece. The author is also the illustrator for the book, and only uses shades of black and red for his illustrations which makes the pictures pop and gives his drawings a unique twist. 
• I found this book to be an endearing little story about Olivia, which I think would be relatable to little girls everywhere. I believe that little girls can really relate to this character and the things she does throughout the day with her family which I think makes it a great book. 
• I used this story in a lesson in the field this semester using compare and contrast with another story. However, I realized that you could relate the compare and contrast activities back to your students by having the students do a compare and contrast activity by having your students create a Venn Diagram comparing the things Olivia likes to do with the things they like to do. I found this activity, as well as a splatter paint activity like the one Olivia does in the book on another teacher blog and she said her students really enjoyed it. The link to the Venn Diagram activity and splatter paint craft below: https://drive.google.com/a/saintmarys.edu/file/d/0Bz86DqwQxSdIOWRiZTE5YjQtNTkzYS00ZTlmLThlMjYtMzI1NmFmNDJhYjc1/view
• I also found an awesome website just about the character Olivia, and on the website there is a painting game, coloring pages as well as a some fun downloads for students who can't get enough of Olivia. The website is also the author's website and it can be found here: http://www.oliviathepiglet.com
• In my search for more on Olivia, I also found an official YouTube channel with fun videos about Olivia that can be found at  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKe-7-MbrHXAUB3hYTa6pkw