OLIVE, MY LOVE

Lively and sweet, this undisguised friendship tale is offbeat enough to stand out in a crowd. Baking dog biscuits one afternoon, Olive hears her friend Dexter outside singing “all of my love . . . to you,” giving fans of Olive, the Other Reindeer (1997) a fresh Olive pun to enjoy. A loud thump, and Olive finds an enormous red heart on her doorstep. She packs biscuits and sets off to return what she assumes was dropped by mistake. Several friends and adventures later, she reaches Dexter and finds out—of course—that the gift of his heart was intentional, and that there are bonbons inside. In tertiary colors, Seibold’s Adobe Illustrator shapes mimic cut-outs and play with scale, perspective, and selective shading. A plot that could easily have been corny, instead flourishes with Walsh’s direct, matter-of-fact tone and Seibold’s shiny energy. (Picture book. 3-6)