Olivia the Magnificent: A Lift-the-Flap Story

Nickelodeon Olivia

by Sheila Sweeny Higginson (Adapter), Art Mawhinney (Illustrator)

When Olivia's gradmother shows Olivia and Ian a cool magic trick, it inspires Olivia to become a great magician! Ian wants to help Olivia in her magic act and "whooli cahooli!"--he makes Olivia disappear...or does he? Kids will love helping Ian search for Olivia in this fun and interactive format.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

16 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Sheila Sweeny Higginson is an award-winning author who has worked in children’s and educational media for over twenty years. She has written more than 100 books for children, magazine and Web articles for parents and teens, teacher's guides, plays, and scripts. Sheila lives with her husband Felipe and their two children in Brooklyn, New York, on the same street where she grew up playing manhunt and stickball.

Reviews

[G Ong]

The twins love it because it’s about the book of magic, and also their first book about magic

[Gail Cooke]

Olivia's up to mischief again which, as always, makes fun reading for kids. This time part of the responsibility lies with Grandma who has come for a visit. (Makes one think that mischief making runs in the family!)

Nonetheless, Olivia dearly loves Grandma's visits, "especially when Grandma puts on a magic show." For starters Grandma or Grandmuchi as she prefers to be called when she's doing magic trick pulls two daisies from behind Ian's and Olivia's ears.

Well, Olivia never lacks self-confidence, as we know. So she decides that she too can become a great magician. She calls herself Olivia the Great and with a "Whooli! Cahooli !" tries to make a coin disappear. Unfortunately Olivia's confidence in her abilities is misplaced as she cannot make the coin disappear, and she doesn't have any better luck with an egg.

Eventually, Olivia makes Ian her assistant and what an assistant he is because when he shouts "Whooli Cahooli !" he makes Olivia disappear. He tries to bring her back with a tempting snack but to no avail. Julian comes to help him and Perry the dog does, too. Where can Olivia be?

Youngsters will have a good time looking for her in this colorful lift-the-flap book.

- Gail Cooke

[Nielson]

Olivia loves when her grandma comes to visit, especially when her grandma does magic! Olivia dreams of becoming Olivia the Magnificent and practices her magic so that she can one day be that. But oops! Ian started practicing and made Olivia disappear. He uses a few tricks of his own to get her back. Kids will love this lift-the-flap magical story!

[Furbjr]

Read this to my kids at bedtime. They loved it and fell right asleep afterwords. It's really not my bag. The kids like lifting what is left of the flaps.