Olive, My Love - Hardcover

VIVIAN WALSH and J.OTTO SEIBOLD are the creators of eight other picture books, including Gluey: A Snail Tale and the bestselling Christmas classic Olive, the Other Reindeer, a prequel to Olive, My Love. They live in San Francisco, California.

PreSchool-Grade 3–Olive, the dog that previously came to holiday fame as a wanna-be reindeer, is back in a Valentine-trimmed tale. Dexter, a winged dog, drops a giant red heart ("all of my love") on her doorstep. Believing that he lost it, Olive sets out on an adventure to return it, and a squirrel and a spider help her. When Olive finds Dexter and tries to return the heart, he tells her that it was meant as a gift. The friends open the heart-shaped candy box and enjoy a picnic of bonbons and dog biscuits. While Valentine's Day is never explicitly mentioned, the cover and the story clearly point to it. The narrative has some sweet and clever moments, but for the most part it is a mishmash. The clever squirrel seems to be useful only for his car and the spider, a black widow dressed as a hobo, comes across as strange rather than quirky. Seibold's computer-generated art still has some of the endearing qualities of the original Olive tale, but many of the pages are strangely cropped and text heavy, which detracts from the book's flow. While fans of the plucky heroine may be pleased to have her back, her latest adventure isn't everything it could be.–Rachel G. Payne, Brooklyn Public Library, NY
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