Review by Booklist Review
Olive Chen comes from a long line of talented--and very serious--artists. Her father is famous for painting squares, and her mother is renowned for her triangles. Their pieces are perfectly precise, minimalist, and monochrome. The daughter, Olive, on the other hand, adores painting with unrestricted gusto. She paints what she wants and what she feels, mixing a profusion of colors and splattering paint with reckless abandon. Olive and her colorful creations contrast spectacularly with the story's otherwise black-and-white illustrations and feel like a breath of fresh air when faced with her parents' rigid ideas of art. Even at school, Olive and her classmates are taught to paint basic shapes and not to use color. Undeterred, Olive follows her heart, splashing colors around her canvas (and onto her classmates) like a mini Jackson Pollock or Joan Miró. When Olive's teacher suggests that Olive should try painting a shape, her classmates come to her defense and express their wish to paint like her. And so she teaches them--with prismatic, far-reaching results. Cho wonderfully brings the spirited Olive to life, making the most of both their creative mediums and celebrating the little girl's unconventional but heartfelt approach to art. This smile-inducing read-aloud celebrates being yourself and embracing your talents.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Olive Chen, who reads as East Asian, believes she's "the most magnificent and brilliant artist in the whole wide world," and she dresses accordingly, wearing a beret-topped ensemble of primary colors. Olive is also defiantly out of step with the rest of her sphere, which is depicted as rigidly monochromatic and form-focused; as she jubilantly paints in bright, uninhibited splatters and swirls, her artist parents and art teacher insist that crisp, inky circles, squares, and triangles are the height of artistic expression. But Olive's classmates, depicted with varying skin tones, find her art and joie de vivre irresistible. After following her lead in their own creations, they join her on a mission to repaint the whole town--and even her parents have to agree that it's a brighter, happier place for her touch. Making her solo debut and working in an array of exuberantly applied media, Cho (Oh No, the Aunts Are Here) revels in coloring outside the lines via a protagonist whose lack of self-doubt and unwillingness to go along to get along delivers an aesthetic and emotional zhuzh. Ages 4--8. Agent: Rebecca Sherman, Writers House. (Sept.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2--Olive thinks she is a fabulous artist, sloshing colorful paint everywhere; her parents believe she should be painting shapes in black and white. They send her to art school, but Olive paints her own way, and pretty soon the other kids at school want to paint their own way as well. When Olive's parents see the work the kids have done all over town, they have an unanticipated change of heart, and ask Olive to paint on some of their monochromatic single shape paintings, which Olive does. The exuberant, brightly colored, non-representational art that Olive chooses is fun, and young students will be excited to try out some of the splashing and smearing that Olive does. This is a pithy story about finding your own voice, even when adults keep coming in the way. It would be a good companion to Peter Reynolds's The Dot or Mac Barnett's Square. VERDICT A nice story about finding one's own voice regardless of the medium.--Debbie Tanner
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A young iconoclast shakes things up. Debut author Cho introduces us to the rambunctious Olive Chen, who lives in an orderly, monochromatic town and enjoys splattering, smearing, and licking paint to create exuberantly colorful masterpieces. Olive believes that she is the "most magnificent and brilliant artist in the whole wide world." Her parents, on the other hand, have their doubts. Serious artists, they wonder when Olive will paint perfectly precise squares and triangles just like them. They send her to art class, but even after a year of lessons Olive does not paint any shapes. She does, however, find admirers among her classmates, who ask her to teach them her trademark style. Together, they envelop the town with an explosion of color, all the way to her parents' museum….This humorous tale has an undeniable charm and serves as a reminder to serious adults of the wonderful possibilities of embracing new ways of thinking and doing. Cho perfectly captures the pure effervescent joy of children creating art with her vibrant use of color and Olive's wide-mouthed, exaggerated expressions as she romps about. Readers will enjoy poring over the small details and stories hidden within the town before, during, and after the color transformation. Olive and her parents are cued Chinese; her classmates are diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.) An infectiously gleeful celebration of art and being true to yourself. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
