Olivia Kidney and the Exit Academy,vol.1,AUTOGRAPHED,hc,2005

Olivia Kidney #2

by Ellen Potter

What is it with Olivia Kidney and ghosts? No matter where she goes, they follow. Even when she and her klutzy handyman of a father start over in a new brownstone in New York City-owned by the mad, bad, and dangerous Ansel Plover-there is no escape from the weirdness that is Olivia Kidney's life.
Their new living room is entirely submerged underwater, and Olivia has to navigate in a boat past bobbing furniture and snapping turtles just to get to her bedroom. Complete strangers show up in the middle of the night to practice bumping into walls! And then, of course, there are the ghosts. This house holds secrets, lots of them-Olivia can feel it. Why, she wonders, was she invited to live here?
Come enter the amazing world of Olivia Kidney. At once moving and laugh-out-loud funny, it will forever capture your imagination.

Genres: Fantasy, Middle Grade, Fiction, Childrens, Supernatural, Humor

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Ellen Potter is the author of many children's books, including the Olivia Kidney series, Pish Posh, SLOB, and The Kneebone Boy. Her non-fiction book, Spilling Ink; a Young Writer’s Handbook, was co-authored by Anne Mazer

Olivia Kidney was awarded Child magazine’s “Best Children’s Book Award” and was selected as one of the “Books of the Year” by Parenting magazine.

SLOB is on more than 10 state book award lists and was selected for the Junior Library Guild.

Spilling Ink; A Young Writer’s Handbook was a New York Public Library Top 100 Children’s Book for 2010 and a Children’s Literature Assembly 2011 Notable Book.

Her newest series is Piper Green and the Fairy Tree.

Reviews

[max theodore · Rating 5 out of 5]

i said this in my review of the first olivia kidney, but i have been looking for this book for LITERALLY ten years. and yet when i read the first book, though i kept recognizing things that made me go "oh thank GOD i didn't make this book up in my head!," i still found myself missing something. "but where," i thought to myself, "is the story about the princepessa and mr. thing-that-i-step-on?" because that is a story that has, genuinely, bounced around my head like a DVD screensaver since i was nine.

found it.

anyway, yeah, olivia kidney is awesome. there's a very prospero's-island willy-wonka's-factory vibe to the buildings olivia explores, and each new and eccentric person she meets has a new and eccentric story, and all of these new and eccentric stories tie together in an incredibly satisfying way that only childrens' books can really produce. reading as an adult, i also have a new appreciation for the way this book (and its predecessor) discusses death. there's lore about the spirit world and olivia's connection to it, and it's all very cool lore! but all of this lore overlays this very calm understanding of death as something that does happen, to everyone, as a natural part of life. it's a sad part of life, to be sure, but it's natural--i mean, the very concept of an exit academy is a school to which one goes to prepare for their oncoming death. this book also makes death mysterious without making it terrifying--the spirit world is clearly not like our world, but it's also not like the dead are gone forever or being tormented, you know? this is all informed by the fact that, as we learn in book one, olivia's brother passed away not so long ago. book one focuses on olivia coping with christopher's death specifically; book two seems to widen the lens a little to bring in ideas about death as a phenomenon. it's cool. ellen potter can write. as i said about the first one: this is a really really good children's book, and also a really really good book in general.

also, the princepessa christina lilli is one of the characters of all time. like

"And what if I 'just asked' you if you were a Philistine?"

"I wouldn't know what you were talking about," Olivia replied.

"Then we understand each other," the Princepessa said. "Now come inside and we'll play a round of pinochle."

"I don't know how."

"Even better. We'll play for money."

/

"Are you sick?" Olivia asked.

"I'm allergic to the trees," the Princepessa said.

"Then why are you in Central Park? It's full of trees."

"Because I refuse to be bullied by vegetation. Now, come away from this abominable statue."

ladies of all time for real. so glad i found her story again after all this time

[Signe]

i read this book a long time ago and just remembered it because of how absurd it was at the time (maybe 5th grade?) with the lagoon thingie and the alligators or snapping turtles or whatever... at the time i had never been to new york (i live on the west coast) and never been in a huge apartment building, so even that was foreign to me. and her being able to talk to ghosts intrigued me. i was interested in her and her bother's relationship because it reminded me of my brother and me, but slightly toned down. so yeah... i just thought i'd review it before it slipped from my mind...

[Bonny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one is just as good as the first. The idea of a school where people go in their dreams to learn how to die....definitely unique. Olivia meets some more interesting and entertaining people. She even has a crush on a boy that she meets in Central Park and decides that she is going to be tall when she gets older.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the best book ever! I loved it so much that i was sad when i finished it!!!!!!!!

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was younger my mom and I would read this together every night till we finished it... I thou8ght it was the best book in the world back then! :)

[Mariacervantes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is interesting because its about a girl that goes to a place where they plan how they die.

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this over 15 years ago, and I'm saving it here because I'm noticing similar books with children discovering portals to parallel places - some of them control the regular world (Return to Sender, The Glitch in Sleep, Misadventures of Benjamin Batholomew Piff (Set of 3)), or books set in apartment buildings with portals to other worlds (Gregor the Overlander).

I remember that I liked this humble, unassuming main character who shows up for people when they need her. And I remember that when a particularly sad thing is revealed, that I cried, and was surprised because the book is otherwise lighthearted and silly. And I liked that, because that is how things often are.

Hmmm...in trying to remember related stories, I stumbled across this one: Once for Yes, which seems like a readalike in that the main character is grappling with grief and there's a magical intervention, but I haven't read it.

[Gloria Gna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una vez más Olivia tienen que mudarse a una casa nueva porque su padre ha sido despedido (y ha encontrado enseguida un nuevo trabajo, que también hay que mencionarlo). Como no podía ser de otro modo, la casa no es nada usual. Para empezar, la planta baja está inundada, y no es que haya una balsa de agua tranquila, es que hay corrientes y, en ocasiones, cuando el vater flotante se pone en marcha, también hay marejada.

La singular casa es la morada de Ansel, que resulta ser el guapísimo -eso dice su madre- hijo de madame Brenda, la medium fanática de las gangas de zapatos. Con tales personajes, la historia no podía por menos que ir de fantásmas, espíritus y próximos muertos.

Salen otros personajes que ya aparecieron en el primer libro de Olivia, como la principesa Cristina Lilí, que cuenta a Olivia algunas peculiaridades de su país natal. También sale Christofer y confieso que eché de menos a Brandwel, que se menciona y casi que se asoma en la historia, pero sin llegar a pintar nada en la misma. También hay personajes nuevos: las hermanas Dijon y Venecia, el chico del monopatín, Nora. Y un par de espíritus muy inquietantes, uno que trata de matar a Olivia y otro que parece mudo y trae a la protagonista un dibujo que ella misma dibujó años atrás.

La historia mantiene el ritmo y la tensión, pero es como que el libro se queda a medias, como si alguien pensase que ya eran muchas páginas y cortase la historia a la mitad para continuarla en otro tomo. Y, en efecto, en inglés existen más libros de Olivia, pero no han sido traducidos al español, por lo que el relato queda incompleto. Una pena.

[Zev · Rating 2 out of 5]

THIS is the book I thought I was getting when I picked up the other Olivia Kidney book. It's shorter and much better written. I was able to understand much more clearly what the author was trying to get at. I liked the illustrations. Character introductions and interactions were sufficiently well-done. The book's title content doesn't show up until the seventy percent mark in the ebook I read, and trreats its subject matter incredibly lightly and pure twee. It's sugar spun candy in terms of vocabulary, description and content. I expected that, though, as this is for children who are not yet in middle school. I mean, Olivia and her friends are in their tweens but the writing level is much younger than that. This book could have been far darker with totally different character motives and plot and setting, but with the same "kids learn to die in their dreams." The possibility of that is what got me interested in the first place. The book, though, never pretends to be anything than what it is. When I finished it, I felt content and okay, unlike when I finally finished the freaking other book I read in the series. The interesting book I was waiting for had still not come in. Sigh.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Olivia Kidney has another great adventure in her second book. Personally, this is my favorite of the Olivia Kidney books.

Olivia moves into another weird building, this one a pretty fancy brownstone The rooms are flooded, and the next door neighbors are a posh finishing school for kids trying to act mean and rich.

That school was the most interesting element in any of the Olivia Kidney books. All the kids have to be renamed after foreign cities like Paris Hilton, dye their hair “butter-blond”, and harass the help. It didn’t radicalize me to eat the rich, just to wonder what my life would be like if I joined them.

A superb episodic piece of imagination with all the cool setting details that captivated me as a kid and wonder if New York was actually like this.

[Vaal · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was interesting misterious and funny

[Mark Sabol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great MG fiction. ROTFL in some of the mid-section scenes. And twists! Wish I'd known of this when teaching 4th grade. Great read aloud and discussion book. 3Rd person POV.

[Tracy Ethridge]

Great book. Good twists and turns and kept my attention. It is an easy read and well written.

[Deebrownnetwork.Net olivia brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Olivia Kidney by Ellen Potter is an extraordinary book. It takes place in New York City. Olivia moves into a new apartment, and she does not like it at all. She has to learn how to be in Exit Academy and helps Nora ( who is in a coma) decide whether to stay or go towards the end of the book.

In my opinion I thought this book was very interesting. She meets a lot of new people and has a mystery to solve. There were no parts in the book where I got bored. Every time I opened the book I was on the edge of my seat. I think this book was very fun to read.

I would recommend this book to people who like mysteries and interesting books. People over the age of ten should read this book. Everyone who reads this book would love it because it took me deep inside the book. I think mostly girls should read this book because it is about a girl.

[Cindy Dyson Eitelman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recommended! Anyone under 13 for sure, plus anyone who likes kid lit and can laugh at the ludicrous, but slightly believable, ghost-full world of Olivia Kidney. It appears that Olivia has always seemed to connect too easily with the spirit world, and this time it's a doozy!

I don't know if there's a reason why the author over-populates Olivia's world with loose ends, ephemeral characters, flotsam and jetsam and suspicious objects of magical purport. Some of these people and things get tidied up at the end, but not very many. I hope they come back in the sequels.

Oh, duh! Just checked--this book is the SECOND in the series. The library has the first, Olivia Kidney, and the third, Olivia Kidney and the secret beneath the city. Sounds like a trip is in order.

[Bonny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I find it rather interesting that Ellen Potter decided to give her books new titles when they were reprinted. Olivia Kidney Stops For No One is word for word the same exact book as Olivia Kidney and the Exit Academy. Don't let the cover art fool you. Potter may have given Olivia a new look on the cover but all of the illustrations in the text are the same as the first edition. I am not a fan of Olivia's new image, she looks to much like a Bratz doll. But I suppose I must give this book the same rating as I did the first edition.

[Rosinell · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book “Olivia Kidney and the Exit academy” by Ellen Potter is a great book. This book is about a girl named Olivia Kidney and her father George. They move into a strange building which is full of water except for the 4th floor. The 4th floor is where they sleep. Olivia hears Screaming and weird sounds in the nigh while she is sleeping. Then the next morning she finds the man that was screaming dead. I liked this book because it was mystery and my favorite genre is mystery.

[Tnguyen19 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't recall who recomended it to me or I overheard someone talking good about this book. I have three words. Simple, normal, liked. You notice I said liked not loved. This book isn't what I normal read, what kept me to finish this book I don't know. Is it because it's different or because of some funny moments I don't know but it is a four star book for me.

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Olivia and her father find themselves in a new home with a strange owner who seems to be up to no good. Slightly darker than the first Olivia Kidney, but still as fun and exciting. Fans of the first will be thrilled that Olivia's adventures are continuing.

[Diletta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book from the first page to the last one. It made my childhood amazing. Now I'm 17 years old and when I remember it I always smile and I think I'll search the other books with Olivia just to read them. I don't care about my age, they are just so beautiful to read.

[Robert]

CB SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY -- Death, magic
***
Even when living in a very typical brownstone in a very typical neighborhood in New York City, there is no escape from the weirdness that is Olivia Kidney's life. The question to her—and so to us—is will she recognize this weirdness as a gift?

[Kristy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the first, but I still love you Olivia. These are some of the most clever children's books out these. Potter is a master of wit and emotion.

[sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

why, pray tell, did they change the name of this book to "olivia kidney stops for no one"? some strange little marketing ploy, i assume. still, it's a wonderful book.

[Ashley Blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Olivia Kidney books, thus far, seem to get off to a slow start and then I can't put them down! Unique and imaginative and a little...weird, these books are a solid pick.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm becoming a huge fan of Ellen Potter . . .

[Bridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it, very catching. I could barely put the book down when I was reading it.

[Bridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it;s my favorite one. I liked it a lot.

[Brett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting concept of the death process. Olivia Kidney is very likable.

[Jana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was just ridiculous. It has crazy ideas, that I love, about things you wouldn't normally think about.

[Bowoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an awesome book about an exit academy. Teaches u how to die! Ellen Potter has a great imagination!