Elvis & Olive (Hardcover)

by Stephanie Watson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Natalie and Annie become friends and decide to spend their summer spying on their neighbors. What begins as a game turns serious when their findings are revealed to the neighborhood, and when the girls discover unexpected things about each other. While the girls learn that it's sometimes helpful to reveal secrets, they also learn a lesson about the importance of privacy.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Press (April 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0545031834
• ISBN-13: 978-0545031837
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #166,079 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Readers will get a kick out of the girls' Harriet the Spy-esque adventures, August 11, 2008

By	Kidsreads.com (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

First-time author Stephanie Watson seems to know a thing or two about what it's like to be 10 ½ in the suburbs. You ride your bike around the block at breakneck speeds. You form secret clubs with your friends. You love spying on your neighbors. But what you don't fully understand is the idea that some things --- especially secrets about other people --- are better left hidden. And that's exactly what the two protagonists learn in EVLIS & OLIVE --- the hard way.

On the first day of summer, Natalie Wallis is incredibly bored. She misses school already and can't fathom spending two months sitting around playing with her younger brother. But when Annie Beckett, the tomboyish girl down the road, introduces herself and suggests they form a covert operation in order to spy on everyone in the neighborhood, Natalie has a sneaky suspicion that her summer won't be so bad after all --- especially when they give themselves code names: Elvis & Olive.

As the days fly by, Elvis (Annie) and Olive (Natalie) uncover bizarre facts about the other families who live on their street. When they discover something incredibly juicy --- like the fact that 50-year-old Sergeant Robert Dewey is building a paper-mâché hot air balloon in his basement, or that snooty 14-year-old Trina George is stealing jewelry by carrying it out of the store in her milkshake --- they write it down on a notecard and post it on the wall of their clubhouse, a musty old crawl space underneath the front porch of Annie's house. Before long, the walls are plastered with secrets (both true and embellished), and the girls begin to think that nothing could be more fun than what they're doing --- until everything takes a turn for the worse.

When Annie mistakenly spills a secret that Natalie has been desperate to keep regarding a certain crush, and Natalie retaliates by blabbering the harsh truth about Annie's past, the girls' friendship seems tarnished for good. Then, when the neighbors find out about what the two have been up to, it's all Natalie can do to get out of bed --- especially because she's grounded. Thankfully, Annie and Natalie eventually realize the error of their ways and learn a valuable lesson about respecting people's privacy and telling the truth.

Although there are a few stock characters in ELVIS & OLIVE (Natalie's prissy, Barbie-like mom and Annie's uncle's trashy girlfriend, Charla), both Annie and Natalie are flavorfully drawn preteens. While none too complicated, the moral is believably hard-won, and readers will get a kick out of the girls' Harriet the Spy-esque adventures.

--- Reviewed by Alexis Burling

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspires the Imagination, October 16, 2008

By	Jacquelyn B. Fletcher (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Our family LOVES this book. My husband read it out loud to our two girls ages 10 and 8 every night before bed. The entire time they were reading this book, the girls begged to go to bed so they could hear the next chapter. Then afterward they decided to come up with their own code names. This is a wonderful book that speaks to kids in a way that excites their imaginations. It's really something special.

5.0 out of 5 stars Harriet the Spy, meet Elvis & Olive!, July 11, 2008

By	Debbie Duncan (San Francisco Bay Area) - See all my reviews

Harriet the Spy has 21st-century kindred spirits in Natalie and Annie -- neighbors and unlikely new best friends who spend the summer spying on and uncovering secrets of their neighbors.

Going by code names of Elvis and Olive, the girls embellish what they find and post the stories on cards in the headquarters of their secret club. Enthusiasm bordering on recklessness gets them in the sort of trouble that seems like the end of the world to a 10-year-old.

Young readers won't want to put this book down until they find out how Elvis and Olive emerge from the mess they created.

[review originally appeared in the Palo Alto Weekly, 7/9/08]