I particularly appreciated the use of a darker background, and a strategically placed candelabra, in the 'film noir' mystery sequence. The artwork, done in charcoal and gouache, captures all the little humorous details in the story, as well as adding some of its own. Like its predecessors, I found Olivia and the Missing Toy absolutely hilarious! Ian Falconer has a real gift for capturing the simultaneously stubborn and sweet quality of his little piglet heroine, as well as the sometimes appalled, but always loving reactions of her very patient mother. Fortunately, she's also capable of forgiveness.

The solution - the family dog Perry has eaten her beloved plaything - proves rather mundane, but Olivia is capable of making a drama of anything. Here Olivia finds that her favorite toy has gone missing, and in a film-noir setting, she explores the mystery. Olivia fans will rejoice to see their favorite pig being her usual extreme self.Hyperactive porcine wonder Olivia returns in this third picture-book devoted to her hilarious adventures, following upon the Caldecott Honor-winning Olivia, and the fun follow-up, Olivia Saves the Circus. The New Yorker cartoonist and Caldecott Honor artist Ian Falconer ( Olivia, 2001) fills his pages with delightful visual stunts, such as the time-lapse drawings of Olivia waiting and waiting and waiting for her mom to sew her soccer shirt and the exaggeratedly scary shadow the toy-eating dog casts on the wall. As devastating as this is to a passionate young pig, 'even Olivia couldn't stay mad forever.' She sews up her dismembered toy and falls asleep that very night cozied up with both it and the toy-wrecking Perry. She shouts accusingly at both her younger brother Ian and her baby brother William, who responds with an unsatisfactory 'Wooshee gaga.' That night (a dark and stormy one), she hears a horrible sound emanating from behind a closed door, and, in a dramatic scene illuminated by her flaming candelabra and showcased in a fold-out spread, she sees the family dog Perry chewing her favorite toy to bits. She looks under the rug, the sofa, and the cat. She is utterly obsessed with having her mother make her a red soccer shirt (even though the team color is green), until, of course, she discovers that her favorite toy, her very best toy, is missing, at which point she becomes utterly obsessed with finding it.

Olivia, like many young pigs, experiences life very intensely.

Olivia missing toy