Sunday, March 13, 2011

Olivia and the Babies...this actually isn't horrible.

Generally, I don't like books made from kids television shows, especially when I don't like the show itself.  Unfortunately for me, my two year old LOVES Olivia on Nickelodeon.  I think Olivia is a self centered little girl who always has to get her way, and when she doesn't she manipulates an entire situation to get her way.  That being said, this book isn't too bad.

Olivia and the Babies starts with Olivia in the store with her mother, brother, and baby brother.  Everyone notices how cute the baby is, and Olivia decides that she wants to be a mother, too.  Honestly, this isn't where I thought Olivia was going to go with this thought.  I assumed that she would see how everyone thought baby William was cute, and this would prompt a mean jealous streak in which Olivia would do something that would make everyone forget baby William and gush over her.  I've seen her do this a dozen or so times on the television show.

Olivia dresses her cat up as her baby and calls him Little Olivia.  Walking down the street her "baby" gets a lot of attention from passersby, so Olivia thinks that having two babies would be twice the fun.  Where does she get baby number two?  You guessed it, her dog, Little Olivia Two.  Of course, Olivia runs into her neighbor and friend Francine, who has to have a baby, too.  When Little Olivia Two (the dog) starts misbehaving, Olivia, true to her form, blames Francine's baby, and goes home.

At home, Olivia has to watch her baby brother, who she insists on calling Little Olivia Three.   While Olivia is watching all three babies, things get a little crazy, and Olivia breaks out in a daydream and saves the day.  Eventually, Olivia realizes that its tough work being a mommy, and she tells her mom that she will wait until she is "old like you" to have babies of her own.

Overall the book isn't bad.  I would recommend it for older kids, 4 or 5, but my 2 year old seemed to like it enough, mostly because it was Olivia.  Unlike most of the other Olivia things I have seen, Olivia saw something that interested her, tried it out for herself (without screwing anyone else over) and learned a valuable lesson.  This doesn't mean that I won't be wary of the next Olivia book that my daughter wants me to purchase for her.

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