Olive My Love

PreSchool-Grade 3–Olive, the dog that previously came to holiday fame as a wanna-be reindeer, is back in a Valentine-trimmed tale. Dexter, a winged dog, drops a giant red heart ("all of my love") on her doorstep. Believing that he lost it, Olive sets out on an adventure to return it, and a squirrel and a spider help her. When Olive finds Dexter and tries to return the heart, he tells her that it was meant as a gift. The friends open the heart-shaped candy box and enjoy a picnic of bonbons and dog biscuits. While Valentine's Day is never explicitly mentioned, the cover and the story clearly point to it. The narrative has some sweet and clever moments, but for the most part it is a mishmash. The clever squirrel seems to be useful only for his car and the spider, a black widow dressed as a hobo, comes across as strange rather than quirky. Seibold's computer-generated art still has some of the endearing qualities of the original Olive tale, but many of the pages are strangely cropped and text heavy, which detracts from the book's flow. While fans of the plucky heroine may be pleased to have her back, her latest adventure isn't everything it could be.–Rachel G. Payne, Brooklyn Public Library, NY (School Library Journal )Lively and sweet, this undisguised friendship tale is offbeat enough to stand out in a crowd. Baking dog biscuits one afternoon, Olive hears her friend Dexter outside singing "all of my love . . . to you," giving fans of Olive, the Other Reindeer (1997) a fresh Olive pun to enjoy. A loud thump, and Olive finds an enormous red heart on her doorstep. She packs biscuits and sets off to return what she assumes was dropped by mistake. Several friends and adventures later, she reaches Dexter and finds out-of course-that the gift of his heart was intentional, and that there are bonbons inside. In tertiary colors, Seibold's Adobe Illustrator shapes mimic cut-outs and play with scale, perspective, and selective shading. A plot that could easily have been corny, instead flourishes with Walsh's direct, matter-of-fact tone and Seibold's shiny energy. (Picture book. 3-6) (Kirkus Reviews )