Where Oliver Fits by Cale Atkinson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Even if you never take a course in children’s literature, which I have, you can start to recognize certain themes in picture books, and middle school books. For picture books the most often theme is making friends, and knowing your a loved. A variation on that theme is fitting in.
The main theme of fitting in is that you should be yourself, because, of course, that is what we want everyone to realize. You don’t have to pretend to like sports if you would rather play with dolls. You don’t want to pretend to hat veggies, if you secretly love them. You don’t want to pretend to go along with the crowd.
So, this is the story of Oliver, a puzzle piece, who wants to fit in, in both ways. He wants to be part of a puzzle, but he can’t find one where he fits in. So he paints himself to fit in, and the paint wears off. He puts on angles, but that doesn’t help. Finally, he disguises himself, and no one knows who he really is, and he finally fits in. But he is miserable. He has finally fit in a group, but they don’t want him for what he is.
And then he decides he would rather just fit in as himself, and he finds others who have also been trying to fit in, and haven’t been happy. And he finds a puzzle where he finally belongs.
I love how he goes through the thinking, just a as a little kid would do. I love that he figures out that this is not the life he wants to lead. Big, big theme for a little picture book, but it tells a good message, and the colors are beautiful and little Oliver is cute as well.
Good addition to any library or home. Probably close to a 4.5 star book. Not quite 5 stars, but dang close.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.