Monday, January 5, 2009

Toot and Puddle (and Olivia!) on TV

My 2-year-old has been enjoying the Toot and Puddle shows on Noggin (my efforts to eliminate television are mostly a miserable failure, although we are increasing tour TV-off time and doing more reading together.)  

Next step (I realize we are doing this backwards) is to check out the Toot and Puddle books.

Toot and Puddle are a pair of best-friend pigs who like to travel and go on adventures around the world.  I love the theme, and the stories so far have been very cute and educational.  I can't wait to see the books.  

Another book is coming to TV soon... Olivia.  Here is a New York Post article about it. I have seen previews for Olivia, but can't find the schedule info, and I'm not sure which channel -- Nickelodepn, Nick Jr. or Noggin.  (UPDATE - it starts Jan. 26 on Nickelodeon, 11:30 EST.  Here's another article about it.) We have a copy of Olivia that was a resale shop find. Honestly, it's not among my most favorites (perhaps because we have all boys) but we should give it more tries and we will definitely check out the new show.  Perhaps like Toot and Puddle, the show will turn more families on to the book.

Olivia is also a pig, a precocious female pig that enjoys art and dancing, and wearing out her mama.  She's described in the Post article as "the piglet with a passion for fashion." 

It's all about pigs on TV!

This just in... Here's the Nickelodeon press release about the Olivia premiere, including channel and VOD info.

4 comments:

BookChook said...

Karen, that is so interesting that Olivia is not among your favourites. It wasn't mine either. (My review is here in case you want to read it:
http://thebookchook.blogspot.com/2008/11/book-review-olivia.html )
I came to the inclusion that it had been written very much for adult buyers. However, the art work was wonderful.

Karen said...

Thanks for the link Susan! I was very hesitant to say anything bad about any children's book, much less one as popular as Olivia -- I'm trying to keep the blog pretty focused on our favorites, so I can just gush about the ones we love.

I don't know why Olivia didn't grab us, I tend to agree that it feels a little mature for my little guys. Although, little ones pretending to be mature may be what it's about -- you know the 5 year old going on 25? or 45? I haven't read it in a while and we should pull it back out soon.

Homeschool Friend said...

Thanks for letting everyone know about this! I did not know Olivia was coming on t.v., and I was a little foggy on Toot and Puddle being on t.v.. I am really out of the loop when it comes to television shows....We generally stick to DVD's. BUT, that's not to say we wont watch a good t.v. show. Not long ago, my boys went through a stage when they wanted to watch Curious George on t.v. all the time. It was actually really cute and very educational!

Well, thanks again Karen! I just love your blog! GREAT stuff!

Anonymous said...

Loved the children's article, and it really does help other Mom's choose suitable reading for their young children.
I am the published author of a children's book which targets kids 0-8 years, and would to think that one day my book will be included in such a list. I will keep watching your blog for more useful information.
Irene J Harvey
i.j.h@live.co.uk
http://eloquentbooks.com/WilliamtheFairgroundCar/html