Oh, Olive! by Lian Cho

Wonderfully vivid, dazzling illustrations will catch readers’ eyes as they open this book promoting the involvement of everyone in art. Looking at the cover and endpapers before opening the book, readers will be intrigued at the differences between the endpapers, and think about why the author has presented them in such a way. 

Olive Chen is one amazing artist. She is colourful, all inclusive, authoritative, all encompassing as she tries out splashes, dribbles, and brushes full of colour to splash and throw across the canvas. The resultant work is simply beautiful. But her parents take a dim view of her efforts. Mum loves to draw triangles, Dad loves squares, and each artist is drawn to their own rigid boundaries, deploring Olive for thinking outside the regime they honour. But thinking outside the square is Olive’s theme, different from the style she is expected to use.

Even at school, the teacher encourages the sort of art produced by Olive’s parents, telling Olive she will be better next time, while standing in front of Olive’s glowing, vivid painting. But her classmates tell her how they like her work, and wish that they could do some as well. Too easy, Olive responds, picking up the paint brushes full of paint, directing the group to use them with panache. 

Over the page we see the results of her encouragement as everything within their environment is coloured. Gone is the first black and white endpaper, now replaced by a bright, colourful streetscape. Her parents call out enough, but when the children pull back the curtain of black and white squares and triangles, the bright, colourful class is revealed. Her parents are overwhelmed and love what their daughter has achieved, asking her to help them colour their work. And of course there is a small twist at the end of this fabulous book.

A wonderful testament to thinking outside the square, of encouraging children to find their own path, is shown as Olive bypasses the work expected by her parents and her teacher, and shows everyone what they can achieved, by seeing differently.

The illustrations are wonderful, paint trailing after Olive as she moves across the pages, all sorts of painting styles shown as she lifts her brush. I love the double page showing the parents with their black and white background, telling Olive to stop, then turning over the page to find the opposite, colour swamping the black and white as we look at the class in all their glory. There are exquisite moments in this book, and younger readers will see lots to look at and to talk about. 

Themes: Art, Colour, Imagination, STEM.

Fran Knight