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117th out of 164 books
—
97 voters
Olivia Kidney (Olivia Kidney #1)
by
Ellen Potter
Olivia Kidney's new apartment building is crazy Talking lizards crawling everywhere. A tropical rainforest growing in 7B. Even an apartment made entirely of glass Maybe her father will get fired from his job as the building super, and they can leave. But Olivia is tired of moving from place to place, from school to school. What she wouldn't give for a little slice of sanit...more
Paperback, 159 pages
Published
May 30th 2006
by Serres
(first published 2003)
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Olivia Kidney splashed onto the scene in 2003. Anyone with a bizarre name like Olivia Kidney is bound to have adventures. And so she does, partly because of her dad. Olivia’s dad is an apartment building superintendent. He doesn’t know how to fix things and so is always getting fired. Of course, this means lonely Olivia is always traveling new places and meeting new people. So much so that Potter has already written three books about Olivia. In the first, Olivia’s new home is an apartment buildi...more
For one of my summer reading books, I chose to read Olivia Kidney. It was a good book, but it didn't grab my interest throughout the entire book. Even though you can't, if I could I would rate this book as 3.5 stars instead of 3. I think it had a very interesting plot, and a good choice of characters. Also I thought it was really cool how there was a story from a long time ago, and Olivia (the main character) was meeting people in her apartment building that were part of the story she kept heari...more
Jun 27, 2010
Lsk
added it
I was just reading a negative review for The Mysterious Benedict Society and felt a wave of consensus rushing over me. I have a 9-year old daughter who keeps falling asleep when I read her this book. While she was away for the weekend, I finished it and thought I understood the problem: it's written for the parents not the kids, at least the parents who want to feel clever for grasping a plot about 'grown-up' problems like bureaucracy, mind-control, and subliminal messages. Far superior to this...more
I chose book because my friend recommended it to me. A girl names Olivia she moved into a new apartment. She later realizes that the aparments are like no other because the rooms are all different from eachother. One is a tropical rainforest and another is made entirly out of glass. She hears a lot of stories and she goes on tons of adventures in the magical apartment rooms. My favorite quote if "The first thing Olivio though when she walked into the apartment was that she has stepped out into t...more
Huh. I did like it, and I did read it one sitting, but I'm not sure I'm interested in a whole series. It certainly seemed complete unto itself. As I was reading I was thinking, first, that it's like nothing I've read before, then I was wondering where I'd read this kind of thing before, and by the end I was thinking that Neil Gaiman was, for some odd reason, writing books like Coraline or The Graveyard Book under a nom de plume. It also reminded me a bit of The Beastly Arms.
J Potter
Talking lizards, glass walled apartments, seances and mysterious friends are all a part of this page turner! Olivia has moved 4 times in 2 years because of her dad, though he tries his best, he isn't the best apartment superintendant. It's hard always being the new girl in school, and after a terrible day of being teased, Olivia finds herself locked out of her apartment! The next few hours of exploration involve plenty of adventure, mystery, suspense, and even a few brushes with the para...more
Talking lizards, glass walled apartments, seances and mysterious friends are all a part of this page turner! Olivia has moved 4 times in 2 years because of her dad, though he tries his best, he isn't the best apartment superintendant. It's hard always being the new girl in school, and after a terrible day of being teased, Olivia finds herself locked out of her apartment! The next few hours of exploration involve plenty of adventure, mystery, suspense, and even a few brushes with the para...more
Boyo and I are listening to this on tape in the car, and then I got the book out to check out the pictures and finished it in book form. It's funny how different a book and a book on tape can be - with the tape you hear all the reader's nuances and the tone is definitely changed, but the characters really come to life. On paper you get pictures and get to use your imagination more.[return]Not that that has anything to do with reviewing this book, which I really enjoyed. The stories were hilariou...more
Not quite what I was expecting, but definitely excellent. Olivia has moved for the fourth time in two years and is feeling sad and alone. When she is locked out of her aparement, she begins to have a series of adventures as she uncovers the extraordinary and amazingly interconnected lives of her new neighbors. Olivia is also coping with a death in her family and is desperately trying to get in touch with her brother in the afterlife.
Olivia's adventures are zaney and flow one right into the next,...more
Olivia's adventures are zaney and flow one right into the next,...more
Oct 22, 2008
Jess
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
not sure
Recommended to Jess by:
Fantasy In the House annotation project
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
This is such a cute series. It's set in New York City in what is vaguely the present day, although I definitely get a Royal Tennenbaums feel of ersatz 70's NYC. Either way, the protagonist is a spunky middle schooler named Olivia Kidney. She's a strong heroine without being all grrl powery. Potter is a refreshing voice in tweeny literature. It's wholesome without being oldfashioned or prudish. My children will definitely be reading this series (and NOT the Clique or Gossip Girls, etc)
I think I may have found my new favorite children's author. In some ways, this reads as a warm up for Kneebone Boy (my favorite children's book of 2010), aimed at a slightly younger audience. Quirky characters, mysterious happenings, possibly supernatural occurences, heavy duty themes disguised in a humorous package. But in other ways--especially the 3rd person narration (vs. Kneebone's 1st)--it is utterly different, and yet just as good. I can't wait to read the others in this series.
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Olivia Kidney's father is a building superindendant, and so they have moved again, to a snooty new building in a new place. While for about thirty seconds I was sure this was going to be a Clementine ripoff, Olivia is all her own girl, with all her own adventure.
Olivia comes home to discover that she has lost her keys and is locked out. As she tries to get into the building, and then into her apartment, she encounters a slew of interesting and odd characters--Branwell Biffmeyer, oldest of eleven...more
Olivia comes home to discover that she has lost her keys and is locked out. As she tries to get into the building, and then into her apartment, she encounters a slew of interesting and odd characters--Branwell Biffmeyer, oldest of eleven...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
This book was often fun with a glass room, lizard men, enchantment, and a brownies, yet, I didn't care for the dead who didn't know they were dead. The writing was good, yet, I like my children to read books with positive and learning characters, not complaining ones (they know how to do this already). All in all, this book had a lot of great parts but didn't end with much of a moral or message.
Olivia and her father have moved into a new apartment building in New York and the place is quite odd. Among others she meets a woman who lives in a glass apartment and a woman whose singing is so appealing that people can't stay away from her. Although the story was kind of weird, I really did enjoy the book.
This was another book that I picked up at a book sale that looked interesting and that I hope one of my nieces might enjoy. It was really good. Part fantasy and part adventure with lots of laughs. It deals with a young girl coming to terms with the loss of her brother. I recommend it for the 9-12 year olds.
Jul 02, 2007
nicole j. wroblewski
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
9-12 year old girls...
Shelves:
7up
For a story that's all over the place (subbasements, dessert islands, an apartment made entirely of glass with a see-through floor so you can spy on the neighbors and prevent their children from drinking drain cleaner...), I didn't really feel like it took me anywhere. Plus it's sort of a downer. Olivia's mother has left the family (not sure why yet), and her older brother recently died of cancer, so, quite rightly, Olivia's pretty lonely. She's taken to communing with (or attempting to, anyway)...more
Although my girls claim to have enjoyed this book, I found it spooky, unnecessarily complicated and somewhat morbid. I found myself skipping parts that I found inappropriate (what 7-year-old needs to hear about a pirate who enjoys strangling people?) Some parts of the book were interesting, but overall I would have preferred not to have read this book.
This book was bizarre. It only took a couple of hours to read. It was supposed to be Alice and Wonderland-ish but the author didn't pull it off very well. The way it all came together in the end was interesting and a little bit surprising but I wouldn't ever read this again.
Feb 14, 2011
Debrarian
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
j-fic,
supernatural
“Twelve-year-old Olivia explores her new apartment building and finds a psychic, talking lizards, a shrunken ex-pirate, an exiled princess, ghosts, and other unusual characters.” Totally surreal and excellent- has that “real” edge of genuine emotion and danger.
Strikes just the right balance between realistic fiction and ghosts and supernatural strangeness. Olivia is endearing, and I expect later books may explore her psychology a little more, though that remains to be seen.
Middle-grade/upper elementary.
Middle-grade/upper elementary.
Although I "only" gave this book four stars, I will read the other books in the Olivia Kidney series. This book reminded me of a Polly Horvath novel--quite zany and eccentric, but good. I had to suspend disbelief for most of the book, but that's part of the fun.
When Olivia moves into a new apartment building with her father she finds all kinds of unexpected residents like a pirate, an exiled princess and a ghost. A fun story sure to be a hit with Roald Dahl fans. Olivia is charming and her adventures are exciting.
I loved this book. I read it a long time ago and have been searching for it for a long time. If you like adventures, ghosts, and secrets this is your book. Just remember that this is a kids book and is pretty thin. But I love this book all the same.
I just remembered this book ... someone mentioned it in a goodreads discussion. Haha. I read it a while ago, I think when I was twelve or so. I remember liking it. It had one of those wacky Alice in Wonderland / Coraline atmospheres to it.
Olivia is a girl living in a very unusual apartment building where she meets some very unusual people. Frankly, I was a little disappointed by this one. Not only was it nothing like the description I'd read (I can't remember if it was in the catalog or from the back of the book), but it also seemed like Ms. Potter could have done so much more with the idea.
This was a cute, easy read. Olivia is trying to cope with the death of her brother (which the reader doesn't find out about until at least 1/2 way through the book). Fantasy story with lots of different crazy characters. Very fun read.
A quirky story that is a fun read for kids. One of C's book club books. That author was awesome and phoned into our book club meeting and talked to all the kids and took time to answer questions about her book.
Another children’s book I sought out based on BookSense recommendations. Strange little story. Let’s see if I can summarize the plot. Olivia moves with her father, a building super, to yet another apartment building. This building is populated with a wacky assortment of inhabitants, including a woman who thinks she is royalty, a woman who has turned her apartment into a tropical rainforest, a vast number of lizards (who, Olivia is told, are really men who have been changed into lizards), a woman...more
I thought it was a little weird and kind of scary, but I read it on Chloe's recommendation, and she thought it was funny. That's strange -- a mother and daughter who don't see eye to eye? Bizarre!
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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| i love this book | 2 | 6 | Nov 24, 2011 05:35pm |
Ellen Potter (born 1973) is an American author of both children's and adult's books (as Ellen Toby-Potter). She grew up in Upper West Side, New York and studied creative writing at Binghamton University and now lives in Candor in upstate New York. She has been a contributor to Cimarron Review, Epoch, The Hudson Review, and Seventeen. Her novel Olivia Kidney was winner of the Child Magazine Best Bo...more
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