Author: Birgita Sif

Illustrator: Birgita Sif

Publisher/Year: Candlewick Press, 2012

Pages: 29

Genre: Realistic Fiction

 Analysis:

“Oliver felt a bit different,” Sif writes (p. 2); a young, bespectacled boy dressed all in green, Oliver enjoys his solitude and imaginative play with his stuffed animal friends. Alone, Oliver can go on any imaginative adventure he pleases, but he soon discovers that his friends cannot actually listen to him play piano. Then, one day, a run-away tennis ball leads Oliver to someone new and different too: Olivia.

Introverted, imaginative, and solitude-loving readers can personally identify with Oliver’s need to freely exist in his own world. Many of these same readers can also relate to Oliver’s desire for human companions that can listen and respond, but his hesitancy, as an introvert, to reach out on his own. Oliver speaks to “all those who have ever felt a bit different,” as Sif writes in her dedication. For more extroverted and social readers, Oliver provides a window into the world of an often overlooked group: introverts. Sif portrays introverts like Oliver with both respect and a critical eye; she celebrates their contentedness with being alone but also highlights how complete solitude can even be too lonely for the introvert. For introverted readers, Oliver models how one can step out of their comfort zone and take a leap of faith into new things. Oliver encourages introverted readers to seek companionship in their human peers, and not solely with their toys.

Power is not distributed between characters but embodied in fate—the happy coincidence that Oliver’s run-away tennis ball led him to new beginnings with a girl that is different just like him. Oliver contains a very limited view of culture, beyond that of introverts. Every character is white and able-bodied. It is possible, therefore, that Oliver could send a rather unintended message that there is only hope of new beginnings for white introverted children.

The repetition of how Oliver was “a bit different,” “but it didn’t matter,” communicates an important transformation that Oliver, and many of us, undergo in our lives. At first, Oliver believed that enjoying being different meant solitude; later, he discovers that he could befriend Olivia because they are both different and could be so together. All other text elaborates on this realization of Oliver’s and his ensuing leap of faith. Sif uses color symbolically in her illustrations. Oliver, his toys, and Olivia are all drawn with colors far more vibrant (i.e. red and green) than the dim and subdued grays, blues, and golds of the real world they live in. This color contrast symbolizes how Oliver and Olivia are different, yet perfect companions. The contrast also compares the freedom and contentedness Oliver and Olivia feel in their imagined world to the isolation they feel around others. Sif’s illustration of Oliver running to the right and through the open gate to Olivia’s yard shows Oliver’s growing acceptance that his toys might not be good enough companions for him. Overall, Oliver supports individualism and the idea that people should not have to change who they are to be friends. Although Oliver celebrates the power of human companionship, it rather idealistically shows that a perfect someone exists for everyone and fate (vs. human initiative) will bring soulmates together.