Patricia Silverberg (Children's Literature)
Adorable piglet Olivia must have her way when it comes to her soccer uniform. She does not want to be like everyone else and wear an unattractive green shirt. She must wear red--her favorite color. While mom sews the impatient tyke a new t-shirt, Olivia wanders outside to play with her favorite toy rag doll. After returning home, Olivia realizes the toy is missing. She has a hissy fit and searches everywhere for her beloved dolly. Finally, during a dark and stormy night, she discovers her dog chewing on the toy. Although her daddy promises to buy her a new toy, she patches the doll back together. The story humorously portrays the emotions of a young child who knows what she wants out of life. The story is brought to life in black in white drawings that are highlighted with red and green. Fonts also play a huge role in telling the tale and emphasizing the emotions involved. Olivia and the Missing Toy is a fun read for any child who has a favorite toy he or she just can't part with. 2003, An Anne Schwartz Book/Simon & Schuster, $16.95. Ages 5 to 8.

CCBC (Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices, 2004)
Olivia returns again. The self-assured pig with irrepressible flair is still a trendsetter when it comes to fashion, insisting on a red soccer shirt even though her team color is "a really unattractive green." While her mom sews, Olivia occupies herself playing with the unfortunate family cat and one of her toys. But by the time the shirt is done, the toy has disappeared. "That's my best toy. I need it now!" cries Olivia, never shy about sharing her feelings with the world. The toy does turn up, and observant children might already suspect who took it before Olivia discovers the truth. Ian Falconer has again created a charming and funny story about an uncontainable personality. As with the previous Olivia books, Olivia (2000) and Olivia Saves the Circus (2001), both published by Atheneum, Olivia and the Missing Toy is illustrated almost completely in black-and-white, with judicious use of red and, something new in this story, green. CCBC categories: Picture Books for Toddlers and Preschoolers. 2003, An Anne Schwartz Book / Atheneum, 32 pages, $16.95. Ages 4-8.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2003 (Vol. 71, No. 18))
The line-master is back . . . in perfect form. When Olivia's beloved stuffed toy disappears, the hunt proceeds in typical fashion as she falsely accuses her brothers and searches her house on a "dark and stormy night." She discovers that her dog has chewed the toy to bits. Never one to hold a grudge, she repairs the toy and forgives the offending pooch, who at book's end lies cuddled beside her in bed. This contains elements Falconer's readers love: endpapers that add a cunning fillip (Olivia's relationship with her toy), velvety monochromatic palette with accents of red and (in this entry) green, incisive characterization rendered with minimal line (the subtlest change in mother's expressions), photographic homage to a feminist icon (Martha Graham), adroit gatefold (revealing canine criminal), happy ending, and above all the ironic contrast established between subtle nuance and Olivia's over-the-top personality. Containing more full-bleed illustrations and less white space, it may not seem as elegantly designed. Yet what it sacrifices in design it gains in a more fully developed plot. The heightened atmosphere and melodrama suit Olivia just perfectly. 2003, Anne Schwartz/Atheneum, $16.95. Category: Picture book. Ages 3 up. Starred Review. © 2003 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Deborah Stevenson (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, December 2003 (Vol. 57, No. 4))
Now in her third outing, Olivia (from Olivia, BCCB 11/00, and Olivia Saves the Circus, 11/01), determined as always, insists that her mother make her a new soccer shirt ("Olivia’s uniform comes in a really unattractive green"). By the time the shirt is ready, however, Olivia’s attention has been diverted by another problem: the disappearance of her beloved toy. The intrepid piglet uses all the best detective skills ("She asked her little brother, Ian, ‘WHAT DID YOU DO WITH MY TOY?’"), but the toy remains unfound; come that night, Olivia hears "an awful sound . . . coming from behind the door" ("So, of course, Olivia went inside") and finds the family dog with Olivia’s sadly chewed-up toy. Olivia’s cheered by her father’s promise to get her the "very best toy in the whole world," but she also fixes up her old toy and puts him in bed next to her, forgivingly allowing the dog in on the other side. The digressive tendencies of the narrative are a bit more evident here, since there’s an actual plot that’s being unfolded, and the different motifs and plots don’t quite cohere; nonetheless, there’s plenty of recognizable reality, and Olivia’s still suffused with self-centered charm as she struts through her world. As usual, it’s the illustrations that really showcase her charm as the top-heavy Olivia scampers about her apartment on the tips of her trotters, interrogating and manhandling (pighandling?) anything that she chooses with a high-snouted imperiousness that reliably resembles that of strong-willed small children. The trichromatic palette, which adds green to Olivia’s traditional red and black, helps Olivia’s poor battered toy stand out visually (he looks like he’s had a pretty wild existence even before the dog got him, so Olivia’s ham-handed repair job isn’t that much of an aesthetic come-down), but it’s the smoky blacks that provide the real drama here, especially in the foldout that reveals the source of the slavering shadowed head on the wall (the mischievously chewing pup, of course). The tender-hearted may find it hard to recover from the toy trauma, but Olivia’s legions of fans will still get a kick out of watching the piggy princess go through her paces. Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2003, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2003, Schwartz/Atheneum, 32p, $16.95. Ages 4-7 yrs.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2004)
In the third book starring the precocious piglet, Olivia loses her favorite stuffed toy and discovers, in a mock-horrific climax on "a dark and stormy night," that the dog has chewed it to pieces. Falconer pads the slender plot with some more of Olivia's characteristic mugging. The drawing is superb; green accents in the pictures here give young viewers something to scout for amidst Olivia's signature red and black. Category: Picture Books. 2003, Atheneum/Schwartz, 40pp, $16.95. Ages 4 to 9. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.