Olive and Snowflake

by Tammie Speer Lyon

Olive and her dog Snowflake are the best of friends. They do everything together including…getting into trouble! Olive’s parents decide to send Snowflake to obedience school. Maybe if Snowflake learns to behave, they won’t have to give him away. Olive worries that her parents might give her away, too. So she accompanies Snowflake to obedience school. Will she and Snowflake learn the doggy tricks that will help them get along with family and friends? Tammy Lyon’s soft-color acrylic and pencil illustrations add to the story’s charm and highlight the special relationship between a girl and her dog.

Genres: Picture Books, Dogs, Storytime, Childrens, Juvenile

34 pages, Hardcover

First published June 15, 2011

Reviews

[Anne Beier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Olive instigates Snowflakes naughty behavior and they go to obedience school. Olive thinks she will be sent away too, but finds out she won't. They both work hard at obedience school and become model neighbors and at home too.

[Edward Sojuwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Olive and her little pooch Snowflake are rebels with a cause and four paws. These two do everything together including occasionally tearing up the house, so Mom suggests they both go to dog obedience school to get Snowflake to behave. Olive, being about six, gets freaky thinking if they send away the pooch, they might send away Olive, too. Then Mom reassures Olive, in the way stereotypical of moms in fiction "We only send away misbehaving dogs to school, not misbehaving children." (Translation: but we are looking into all the options!) The ending is way too pat, but too sweet and charming to be put down by a critic like me. Try it.
Three stars
Olive (I LIVE) for cute stories like this one!

[Elizabeth Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

best friends are the best ... so cute. great illustrations. well done. happy and makes you think what it might be like to have a doggie friend. (i read a kindle version. can not find that here to click on Goodreads??!)

[Abriana Chamberlain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Olive and Snowflake did everything together. Where every Olive when is where Snowflake would follow. But lately Snowflake had not been acting very well. So Olive's parents decided it was time for obedience school. One day Olive over heard her parents talking and saying that if Snowflake didn't start acting better then she would have to go. Olive thought that this meant her too, so she got really sad and scared. When they all got to the obedience school, Olive kept saying I will do this. I can behave! Please, don't send me away. Her parents realized what was going on and told her that the obedience school was only for Snowflake. After that Olive felt so much better and Snowflake became one of the most well behaved dogs.
I thought Olive and Snowflake was such a cute little book. The cover first caught my eye cause it reminded me of my dog Oliver. I loved the type of passion and connection Olive had with Snowflake. The illustrations were really great and tied so well together with the story. This book is great to read to you any young kids, even parents will love it too.

[Betsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Realistic Picture Book 2011
This is a sweet story, but how frightening for a little girl to think that she might be sent away from her family if she and her dog cannot learn to behave at obedience school! That's how Olive understands her parents' reason for sending her and Snowflake to obedience school. The misunderstanding is cleared up a little too quickly to be realistic after spending 4 pages developing Olive's thought processes about being sent away.
Cute story and lovely illustrations, but somehow, it just misses.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 3 out of 5]

Olive and Snowflake, Olive’s dog, are best friends. They do everything together.

“They played together,
slept together,
and read together.
In fact, they did everything together, including…
…getting into trouble!”
But if Snowflake is so destructive that he must be sent away to obedience school,
what does that mean for Olive?

Will she be sent away, too?

A lovely story of a family working out problems, full of charming illustrations.

[Brenda Pritchard]

preschool story time; narrative skills, print motivation

This is the story of a girl and her dog that misbehaves. The dog has to go to obedience school or her parents will send the dog away. The dog learns new tricks and learns to behave and gets to stay with the girl.

The story is a bit wordy for young toddlers, but preschoolers will identify with the story.

[The Library Lady · Rating 2 out of 5]

Please not that no one sends a cat to obedience school (smart animals) and add another "disobedient dog learns to behave" book to the shelf. The added twist is that Olive fears that obedience school is for her too! The artwork is attractive and bright, the text adequate and a bit didactic.

[Mckinley · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't find this humorous. Poor thing thinking she might be sent away. But even so, what sort of message does it for how to treat pets? "Puppies are not just for Christmas".