The Olivia book series was inspired by Ian Falconer's niece, Olivia. "I was just entranced by her," he stated. "I wanted to make a little present for her, so I started working on the Olivia book."
The series is different from many children's picture books because of its stark minimalism. Inspired by the style of Dr. Seuss, Falconer chose to draw uncluttered images in black and white with the occasional splash of red, along with the insertion of real artwork by famous artists — Degas and Pollock, for example. Each book in the series explores the use of another signature color in addition to the original black, white and red images.
Olivia books have been translated into many languages including Czech, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Russian, Hebrew and Latin.
Olivia Saves the Circus, 2001 – the 2002 Booksense Illustrated Children's Book of the Year
Olivia's Opposites, 2002
Olivia Counts, 2002
Olivia...and the Missing Toy, 2003
Teatro Olivia, 2004
Olivia Forms a Band, 2006 – winner of 2006 Child Magazine's Best Children's Book Award
Dream Big (starring Olivia), 2006
Olivia Helps with Christmas, 2007 – Falconer won the 2008 Illustrator of the Year in the Children's Choice Book Awards for this title
Olivia Goes to Venice, 2010, 2010
Olivia and the Fairy Princesses, 2012
In the television based series:
Dinner with Olivia - storybook
Olivia Trains her Cat - Ready-To-Read book
Olivia Leaps - deluxe board book
This is Olivia - pop-out pages book
Olivia the Magnificent - Lift the Flap book
Olivia Acts Out - Hardcover book
Meet Olivia! - Coloring book
Brava Olivia! - Coloring and sticker book
Awards
Caldecott Honor for Olivia, 2000
Parent's Choice 2000, Gold Award Winner
Nick Jr. Best Book of 2001
ALA Notable Children's Books 2000 & 2001
Child's Best Book of 2001
Los Angeles Times Best Books of 2000 & 2001
Publishers Weekly, Best Books of 2000 & 2001
BookSense Illustrated Children's Book of the Year for Olivia Saves the Circus, 2002
Voted "Favorite Illustrator" for Olivia Helps with Christmas by over 50,000 children at the Children's Choice Book Awards, 2008
In other media
In 2006, Olivia was one of eight characters to be featured by the United States Postal Service on first-class stamps as part of the "Favorite Children's Book Animals" issue.
In 2008 Nickelodeon partnered with children's media company, Chorion, to bring the bestselling Simon & Schuster Olivia books to life in a new animated television series. The new 3D CGI series was produced by Academy Award nominated animation studio Brown Bag Films and launched on Nickelodeon on January 26, 2009.
In 2011, Polin8 Media partnered with children's media company, Chorion, to create an interactive iPad application "Olivia Acts Out" available on the iTunes Store.
