Olivia
Written and Illustrated by Ian Falconer Flyer
Olivia the Pig
Literary Elements
- Plot- The plot is more of a snap shot of the everyday life of Olivia. There really isn't a rising action, conflict, or climax.
- Characters- The characters consist of Olivia, her mother, her father, her little brother Ian, her dog named Perry, and cat named Edwin. All of the characters are pictured inside the book so we get a visual of what they look like.
- Setting- The setting of this book is definitely modern day. She has technology in it like head phones and a radio. The setting changes throughout the book as we follow her day to day life. She is at home, the beach, outside, and at the art museum.
- Theme- I believe the theme of this book is day to day life and problems with growing up. Olivia is achieving her identity and personality.
- Style- The book features short sentences followed by a picture. This kind of style never leaves the reader without a visual.
Physical Features
- Size- The size of the book is fairy big. The text is medium size but easy to read. The size of the pictures are big. They take up more space than the text does.
- Shape- This book features many different shapes. There is circles. squares, rectangles and many more.
- Cover- The cover has a picture of Olivia the pig. It is in all black and white except for her red dress. The background is all white. The title is big and in all capital letters.
- End Paper- The beginning paper is all white in the background and just has Olivia's clothes all over the floor. I think they chose to do that because it really shows you Olivia's personality before even reading the book. The end paper has an all white background. Olivia is taking off her outfit and dancing to her radio. This just shows how Olivia is very energetic and loves to dress up.
- Font- The font is very basic. I think he chose a basic font so that the reader's main focus is the pictures.
- Paper- The paper is pretty thick and makes turning the page easy.
Visual Elements of the family
- Line- The lines in the picture seem fairly simple. He used very thin lines to draw the characters. It looks as if he could have used pencil to draw these pictures besides Olivia's shirt. I think the simplicity in the drawings makes the book more pleasing to the eye.
- Color- Everything is in all black and white besides Olivia. Throughout the book things that Olivia is wearing or holding are bright red. I think this was done to draw the readers eye to Olivia. It shows her bright personality. It makes Olivia pop right off the page.
- Shape- The shapes in the picture are simple. There are lots of curved lines and straight lines. I feel that I could draw these picture, they're not very challenging.
- Texture- Simple thin lines, there is a bit of shading to make the image appear three dimensional. Olivia's shirt is always a very bold in texture.
- Composition- The family is arranged to make them look as if they were taking a nice family photo.
- Point of View- The family is the main point of view. Olivia stands out more than the rest because of her bright red shirt.
- Distance- This picture is a close up of the whole family.
Visual Elements of Olivia and her Brother
Visual Elements of her Daily routines
Visual Elements of Olivia dressing up
Museum Visual Elements
Olivia's Painting Visual Elements
Visual Elements of Olivia in Movement
Summary of all Visual Element Pictures
Artistic Style
Artisic Media
Elements of Illustration
Framing- There is no framing used in this book. There is lots of white space and the words and pictures are placed in the white space. There is no border separating the pictures and the words.
Arrangement- Every sentence there is a picture of what the sentence says. The pictures and the words are placed pretty sporadically on the page.
Narrative sequence- Since this book is telling us about the day to day life of Olivia its done in chronological order.
Page turns- The pages are thick so it makes turning the page easy. This book is an easy page turner. You always want to see what adventures Olivia is up to next.
I believe the illustrations contribute to the overall meaning of the story because all of these elements are used to portray Olivia's personality. There is no framing used because her thoughts and actions are very quick and unorganized. I think it was arranged the way it was to show the reader a visual after every sentence. Chronological order was used because that's the best to use when describing day to day events. The author wants the reader to keep turning the page so he made Olivia's life very exciting.
Interplay of Text and Illustration
The text and illustrations work together to bring the story Olivia to life. The text tell the readers what is going on in the story. They tell us what Olivia is doing, what she's thinking, what she wants and doesn't want. They tell us all the events that happen in Olivia's life. The illustrations show you exactly what Olivia is doing. They provide that visual that the reader likes to see. If Olivia is brushing her teeth the author will show a picture of her doing that. The text always is followed by a picture. This book does an amazing job of connecting the text and illustration.