Some Pig!

There are so many books and characters I love, that I’ve been having a hard time trying to figure out which ones to write about for this post. But seeing as I spend a good majority of time reading books to my kids these days, I decided to write about my new favorite character in children’s literature, Olivia, from Ian Falconer’s Olivia series. You can check out Olivia’s very cool website here.


In case you didn’t know (or haven’t read every Olivia book at least 75 times like I have!), Olivia is a pig. And pigs are my favorite animal. I don’t know why, but I’ve always really liked them. I used to collect pig figurines when I was younger, and I’m a sucker for a famous pig. Miss Piggy. Babe. Wilbur. And now, of course, I’ve added Olivia to my list.
But Olivia is not just any pig. She’s a pig at the age of 6 ¾ who is smart, independent, creative, stubborn, and a world class negotiator, who always bargains with her mother about the number of books she gets to read before bed. In fact Olivia reminds me a lot of myself (and my son, too!).
And Olivia has dreams. Big ones. At the end of Olivia Forms a Band, Olivia dreams of herself sitting on the Supreme Court, right next to Sandra Day O’Connor, in the chief justice seat, of course.

In fact, although she’s the star of a few picture books and a brand new kids’ TV series on Nickelodeon, Olivia embodies pretty much everything that my favorite adult literary characters do, too. Gloria Steinem said of Olivia, “At last, a pig with self-esteem!” And I couldn’t agree more. Olivia is not just a pig with moxie, but dare I say, she’s also a feminist? What’s not to love?
And now for the winner of The September Sisters contest. I used http://www.random.org/ to pick, and the winner is. . . Stephanie! E-mail me at jill@jilliancantor.com with your address, and I’ll get the signed book out to you!