Olive's First Sleepover
Olive, who first appeared in No Ordinary Olive (2002), can't wait to spend the night at her friend Lizard's house: "We won't even need our pajamas," Olive predicts. "We're staying up all night!" The evening begins with nonstop high jinks: the girls create an insect petting zoo and then play pizza parlor. After hearing ghost stories from Lizard's sister, the girls climb into bed, and Olive is scared by the new sounds and shadows in Lizard's dark room. Olive shares her fears with Lizard, and together the girls set a monster trap, with predictably messy, hilarious results. Vivid details in both the words and the packed ink-and-watercolor pictures elevate this simple story about the common terrors of a first sleepover. Elementary-age kids will easily recognize the giddy, exhausting play as well as the disorienting fears. For younger children planning a sleepover, suggest Ann Whitford Paul's Everything to Spend the Night from A to Z (1999). Engberg, Gillian