Books like Olivia
By Ian Falconer
Olivia turns getting dressed, singing, and sandcastle-building into a full-day production, and yes, the wall-painting part is exactly what your own tiny director tries at home. She runs herself ragged and finally crashes, which feels like the only honest bedtime book out there. Below are more books for kids who live at that same volume.
Olivia acts out her whole day for you to watch, but Press Here by Hervé Tullet needs your kid's actual finger to make anything happen.
The backward-upside-down parade in Silly Sally by Audrey Wood has the same nonsense energy as a pig who paints on walls, just set to a beat.
No pig, no pictures at all. The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak just hands you ridiculous words and makes you the one who has to say them.
Same rainbow-colored silliness, but How to Catch a Unicorn by Adam Wallace turns the whole thing into a hunt your kid gets to help plan.
Wall-painting energy times ten. The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss lets a rainy afternoon turn into total, glorious havoc.
Where Olivia dances just because she can, Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb by Al Perkins gets your kid drumming along with actual hands and fingers.
Olivia's mischief is all pig, all the time. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss scatters that same goofy spirit across a whole zoo of made-up creatures.
Where one pig imagines dress-up and sand castles, Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson hands your kid an entire world drawn from nothing but a crayon.
Same love of make-believe with just sticks and rocks, but Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran stays outside in the dirt instead of a bedroom.
If your toddler likes spotting details on every page of dress-up and pretend play, Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet Ahlberg turns that into an actual seek-and-find game.
Same bouncy, silly-voices read-aloud feel, but Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault sends letters racing up a tree instead of a pig into a bathtub.
Save There's No Place Like Space: All About Our Solar System by Tish Rabe for when your kid wants facts with the silliness. It rhymes about planets instead of pretend play.
