Olivia Kidney By Ellen Potter

What's the big deal with Olivia Kidney?

While it seemed that practically every elementary school student loved Olivia Kidney, I had never even heard of the Olivia Kidney series by Ellen Potter before our reading class this semester. With the assignment to read a realistic fiction book for our blog (and our later opportunity to Skype with Ellen Potter), I had to take this chance to see for myself what all this ruckus about Olivia Kidney is about.

Once I started reading, it didn't take long for me to become completely absorbed in the crazy apartment building of Olivia Kidney.  One day stranded out of her apartment because she forgot her key,  Olivia is shooed out of the hallway by the old woman down the hallway.  The old woman invites Olivia inside where Olivia meets just the first of her peculiar neighbors.  As the afternoon goes on, Olivia meets a tarot card reader, adventures into a tropical rainforest, escapes from a lady covered in lizards, and makes her first friend with a boy who doesn't even know he is...well, you'll have to read to find out!  Potter's illustrative language and totally outrageous but completely possible plot makes this book wonderful for readers ages eight and up.

About every thirty pages, a full-page illustration by Peter H. Reynolds accompanied the current chapter. The scarcity of illustrations contrasts sharply to the frequency of illustrations in the picture books and collections of poetry and fairy tales we have read. When I read picture books, I first glanced at the illustration before reading the text. Any images I form from reading the text thereafter are based upon the illustration. In Olivia Kidney, however, because no picture was present at the introduction of a character, I formed a mental illustration in my head based on the text I was reading. When the illustration came later showing a picture of the character I had already formed a picture of in my head, I found myself blending my image and Reynold's illustration. Reynold's illustration added depth, reality, and concreteness to my mental picture. I would find myself stopping extra long at the pages with illustrations thinking about all the text that preceded it.  Reynolds uses "pencil and pen - and sometimes a little paint" in his sketches.  For more information on his illustrations, click here.

I am glad I finally know what all the fuss is about with Olivia Kidney.  I can't wait to get my hands on other books from the series and find out Ellen Potter's inspiration behind the lovable, quizzical character of Olivia Kidney.