Publishers Weekly Review
| Joyce diverges from the hyperbolic, pleasurably bizarre imagery he created for The Leaf Men and Dinosaur Bob in this digitally enhanced but uneventful picture book. Rolie Polie Olie is a robotic child living in a "land of curves and curls," where most objects are rounded and smooth (although the rooms of Olie's teapot-shaped house have corners). Olie himself is comprised of a round yellow head with the circular black eyes of a smiley face. On his spherical torso, he wears red shorts whose dual buttons recall Mickey Mouse's signature pants, and he stands on pliable metallic limbs that resemble pay-phone cords. In this day-in-the-life story, "Rolie Polie Olie/ rolled out of bed./ Brushed his teeth./ Recharged his head." After a breakfast of "Rolie O's," Olie and his parents, sister and dog perform a morning ritual: "The Rolie Polie Rumba Dance/ was always done in underpants!" Olie then helps the family with chores, plays ball (of course), gets in a tiff with his sister, apologizes and goes to bed forgiven. Joyce makes use of round "O"s in his rhymes and liberally applies "Rolie" as an adjective ("Yes, okey dokey is the day/ when all you Rolie did was play"). Thanks to computer manipulation, his plasticine paintings offer crisp edges, flawless high-tech color and a seeming three-dimensionality. Olie's shiny surface doesn't make up for his lack of a personality, but the character practically steps out of the frames, advertising his potential as a toy or animated image. Ages 2-8. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved |
School Library Journal Review
| PreS-Gr 2-"He's Rolie Polie Olie-/He likes to laugh and play./And in his land/of curves and curls,/this is how he spends his day ." Joyce's rhyming text is rhythmically and grammatically awkward, and there is no real story as readers follow "a really swell guy" and his family through an ordinary day. Rolie Polie Olie and his folks are just that-constructed of spheres, with single antennae on their heads and dot-and-line faces-and their round, bright, and tidy world resembles that of Pee Wee's Playhouse or the Teletubbies, yet exhibits nothing unusual. The characters have a radio, a vacuum, a swing set, a tree house-all of which are vaguely curvy. The computer-generated artwork does look three-dimensional, yet has no emotional depth, and feels static. The family dog has the most expression-in his ears and tail. Curiously, the painted scene on the back flap (in lieu of an author's photo) depicts a more interesting Rolie family and their world. Though in the spirit of Joyce's popular A Day with Wilbur Robinson (HarperCollins, 1993), this meager offering falls flat.-Nina Lindsay, Oakland Public Library, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. |
Booklist Review
| Ages 2^-5. Set on a round planet in a land of curves and curls, this is a sweet, spirited story, told in verse, about a typical day in the life of Rolie Polie Olie, his mom and pop, his sister, Zowie, and his doggy, Spot. Together they eat breakfast (a bowl of Rolie O's apiece), do the Rolie Polie Rumba Dance (in their underpants), and have fun doing chores and playing. Rolie Polies are spherical creatures with heads and bodies like billiard balls. Their arms and legs resemble metal coils, and atop their heads, they have a metal antenna they use to recharge themselves. Unfortunately, Olie is so "wired" by bedtime that he gets into a lot of trouble. All ends well, however, with everyone "safe and snug and sleepy." Based on Joyce's animated TV series, which airs on the Disney channel (is that why Olie wears red shorts with Mickey Mouse buttons?), the book features candy-colored, computer-enhanced pictures with an intriguing three-dimensional quality. A slight but engagingly whimsical effort. Think Toy Story (the movie) for tots. --Michael Cart |
Horn Book Review
| An infectiously rhythmic text describes twenty-four hours in the life of the Rolie Polie family--creatures with spherical heads and bodies, and limbs seemingly made from electrical conduit. The sensibility is truly original, at first resembling Teletubbies, but quickly turning the corner to sharper Joycian wackiness. The illustrations appear to have been created with a computer equipped with 3-D imaging. From HORN BOOK Spring 2000, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. |
Kirkus Review
| Joyce (The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs, 1996, etc.) plays with circles, curls, and curves the way a writer plays with language, creating a visually dazzling story about the everyday capers of a family of round Rolie Polies. Rolie Polie Olie is a toy of a boy, an electro-comic character from a futuristic, alien planet ``way up high in the Rolie Polie sky.'' In the morning he rolls out of bed, brushes his teeth, and recharges his head. At breakfast he dances the Rolie Polie Rumba dance in underpants, then rides aboard the hip-hop mop to wash his teapot house from tip to top. With a rhyme that would be strained in less sure hands, Joyce takes Olie through a hip-hip-hooray day of play and into bedtime, landing Olie in ``a bunch of trouble'' until he is ``Rolie Polie sad'' and misses the nightly kiss on his Rolie Polie head. Computer-generated, digitized backgrounds lend an SF atmosphere to every scene, while the flamboyant colors work in concert to create'appropriately, given the character's origins'an effect of suspended animation. An eccentric blend of the cinematic and familial that is coming to be known as vintage Joyce. (Picture book. 2-7) |
