Product Description

Everyone's favourite piglet is once again a star in these two delightful board books Once again Olivia delights and entertains us in this charming board book all about counting. Count along with Olivia in her own special style as she takes us from one ball, to seven accessories, through to ten Olivia's. Learning to count has never been so much fun!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #106025 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Board book
• 12 pages

About the Author
When not telling Olivia's story Ian Falconer designs sets and costumes for the New York City Ballet, the San Francisco Opera, and the Royal Opera House in London. He lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

An Olivia-Themed Counting Book with Attitude
Ian Falconer must have spent his time at some point repeatedly reading with a child "one hat, two cats, three dogs, four hens, five stars, six sticks, seven pennies, eight bows, nine toys, and ten cakes." While children are fascinated by such repetition as they struggle to generalize numbers from assemblages of objects, it's not as much fun for parents . . . except when they look deep into the delighted faces of their wee ones.

Olivia Counts takes dead aim at adult boredom, and adds vocabulary for the pre pre-school set. Part of the theming is also good for another reason: Most of the drawings in the book appear in earlier Olivia stories. That allows the adult reader to ask a youngster to count a bit when reading those other stories.

Here's an overview if you don't have one to look at:

1. one ball (It's a red and white beach ball that dwarfs Olivia who can barely hold it in her trotters while dressed in a red swimsuit at the shore.)

2. two bows (Two red bows adorn Olivia's generous ears as she smiles up at them.)

3. three pots of paint (Olivia is holding a brush . . . but it doesn't have any paint on it yet.) You may have to explain what a pot of paint is and why anyone would have one.

4. four aunts (Four black and white pig ladies are dressed demurely.) If your child doesn't have an aunt, this will take explaining, too.

5. five books (Only two are red, but this one is easy to understand.)

6. six teeth (Olivia is wearing a bag with a frightening face on it with six shark-like teeth painted on it.) So these are representations of teeth, not real teeth. This one may also require some discussion.

7. seven accessories (Ian Falconer must know lots fashion designer families, and I know you're going to have to explain what accessories are.) At least they are all in red to make the tie-in clearer.

8. eight cousins (These are very cute piglets in black and white with one holding a tiny soccer ball.)

9. nine toys (One standard after all, but they are not all in red. Query: Is a baseball a toy? How about a baseball bat?)

10. ten Olivias (This is the best one by far. I can hear the giggles across the land when this page is opened.)

If your child loves Olivia, or you can't stand regular counting books, and you don't mind explaining a few matters, this book will bring much joy . . . and some counting.