Olivia -- a picture book's name and the character created by Ian Falconer

• Olivia, 2000 - winner of 2001 Caldecott Honor
  Caldecott Medal
  The Caldecott Medal is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children , a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children published that year. The award was named in honor of nineteenth-century English...
  
  
• Olivia Saves the Circus, 2001–2002 Booksense Illustrated Children's Book of the Year
• Olivia's Opposites, 2002
• Olivia Counts, 2002
• Olivia...and the Missing Toy, 2003
• Teatro Olivia, 2004
• Olivia Forms a Band, 2006–2006 Child Magazine's Best Children's Book Award
• Dream Big (starring Olivia), 2006
• Olivia Helps with Christmas, 2007–2008 Falconer won the Illustrator of the Year in the Children's Choice Book Awards for this title

• Dinner with Olivia - storybook
• Olivia Trains her Cat - Ready-To-Read book
• Olivia Leaps - deluxe board book
• This is Olivia - pop-out pages book
• Olivia the Magnificent - Lift the Flap book
• Olivia Acts Out - Hardcover book
• Meet Olivia! - Coloring book
• Brava Olivia! - Coloring and sticker book

Awards

• Caldecott Honor for Olivia, 2000
• Parent's Choice 2000, Gold Award Winner
• Nick Jr. Best Book of 2001
• ALA Notable Children's Books 2000 & 2001
• Child's Best Book of 2001
• Los Angeles Times Best Books of 2000 & 2001
• Publishers Weekly, Best Books of 2000 & 2001
• BookSense Illustrated Children's Book of the Year for Olivia Saves the Circus, 2002
• Voted "Favorite Illustrator" for Olivia Helps with Christmas by over 50,000 children at the Children's Choice Book Awards, 2008

Facts about the Olivia books

• The OLIVIA book series was inspired by Ian Falconer's niece, Olivia. Falconer's life changed when he first laid eyes on his baby niece. "I was just entranced by her," he stated. "I wanted to make a little present for her, so I started working on the OLIVIA book."
• OLIVIA is particularly unique in the world of children's picture books because of its stark minimalism. Inspired by the similar style of Dr. Seuss, Falconer chose to create uncluttered images in black and white with the occasional splash of red. Each book in the series explored the use of another signature color in addition to the original black, white and red images.
• The OLIVIA stories are equally minimal, describing the antics of a hyper-active piglet who tests her mother's patience by belting out songs, drawing on walls, dancing, and... well... acting like a kid.
• OLIVIA stories have been translated into many languages including French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Hebrew and Latin.
• In 2006, Olivia was one of eight characters to be featured by the United States Postal Service on first-class stamps as part of the "Favorite Children's Book Animals" issue.
• Although the inspiration for the Olivia series originally came from the author's niece, Falconer drew his ideas for the design of the pig from a different Olivia; Olivia Babcock. When first asked about the source of this illustratory inspiration at the "Kidz book buzz" Children's Book Tour in Wisconsin, Falconer was quoted as saying: "As all artists, I find it easier to create illustrations when I base them on my surrounding reality, rather than to draw something pulled fully out of the imagination. I revised the design for Olivia the Pig for several weeks until I incidentally met a girl on whom I could base the design with minimal alterations even necessary. The fact that her name was also Olivia was purely coincidental" Falconer laughed.
• In 2008 Nickelodeon partnered with children's media company, Chorion
  Chorion (company)
  Chorion Limited is a major international media production company with offices in London, New York and Sydney. The company produces TV shows and feature films, and is best known for the heritage properties included in its portfolio. These include children's characters such as Paddington Bear, Peter...
  
  , to bring the bestselling Simon & Schuster
  Simon & Schuster
  Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...
  
   OLIVIA books to life in a new animated television series. The new 3D CGI series was produced by Academy Award nominated animation studio Brown Bag Films
  Brown bag films
  Brown Bag Films is an animation studio based in Dublin, Ireland. Established in 1994 by Cathal Gaffney and Darragh O'Connell, Brown Bag Films produce 3D character animation, including short films, features and TV series for international markets...
  
   and launched on Nickelodeon on January 26, 2009.
• In 2011, Polin8 Media partnered with children's media company, Chorion, to bring the bestselling OLIVIA to life in a new, fully interactive iPad application "Olivia Acts Out" available on the iTunes store.

External links

• Olivia on Nick Jr.
• Chorion
• Brown Bag Films
• Simon & Schuster- Ian Falconer Author Profile
• U.S. Postal Service Commemorates Favorite Children's Book Animals on Stamps
• Polin8 Media