Product Description

Rolie Polie Olie lives way up high in the Rolie Polie sky with his mom, his pop, his sister, Zowie, and his dog, Spot. Follow Olie as he spends his day having fun under the Rolie Polie sun.

Spend a day with the Emmy–award winning robots in Rolie Polie Olie's family, complete with the Rolie Polie Rumba Dance done in underpants!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #170927 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-01
• Released on: 2006-01-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 48 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780060534844
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
Any book that features robots dancing around in their underpants is a book worth owning. William Joyce--creator of Dinosaur Bob and George Shrinks--brings his expansive, wildly colored illustrations to the story of a cute, buglike robot and his family. Rolie Polie Olie lives on a faraway planet with his mom and pop, his sister Zowie, and his doggie Spot. They spend a pretty ordinary day playing, working, eating, and getting ready for bed in this delightfully modest tale of robotic family happiness. Joyce's bouncy prose is engaging enough to be read aloud time and again: "You're Rolie hot and Polie tired. Your motor's zapped. Your piston's fired. Yes, okey dokey is the day when all you Rolie did was play." The illustrations are vintage Joyce, with a 1930s deco look that's polished without being soulless. The pictorial lushness is a nice counterpoint to the simplicity of the tale, which devotes a grand full-page spread to the little-known fact that "The Rolie Polie Rumba Dance was always done in underpants!" --Claire Dederer

From Publishers Weekly
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.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 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
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Rolie Polie Olie - One of a kind!
Wow, Rolie Polie Olie is a huge hit at our home. Not only the TV series and the new book, but now you can get toys of the whole family through etoys.com. They are absolutely precious. I received mine today and don't know if I will be able to wait until Christmas to give them to my children. Check them out. I promise you don't want to miss out.

Great for discussing similarities and differences
My son (almost three) has been crazy about this book from the moment he saw the cover. It's about a toddler/robot named Rolie Polie Olie who lives on a distant planet. The gentle, rhyming story recounts his day with his family--breakfast, chores, play time, naughty behavior, bedtime. We spend a lot of time pointing out the similiarities and differences between our family and Olie's. For example, our house is shaped like a box; Olie's house is shaped like a teapot. Our vacuum stays on the ground; Olie's vacuum flies through the air and makes bubbles. This feature alone makes the book worthwhile. Be warned, however, that the poetic text with its odd phrases and syntax will be somewhat puzzling to toddlers; I'm still at a loss to explain, "Yes, okey dokey is the day when all you Rolie did was play." Some of the illustrations will also confuse--just try sorting out Olie's dad from the pogo stick and the tree house; it's all a mesmerizing mish-mash of odd shapes and bright colors. That said, the overall story is simple enough that it will carry young readers/listeners through the tough spots. And there is an awful lot here to enjoy.

Great reading for youngster
My child delights in this book. I have only had it for a week now but the pages are already becoming worn because he wants me to read it to him every time he sees it. He is only three and already he knows the book backwards and forwards. Forget about Barney or Teletubbies, Rolie Polie Olie has become his new favorite. The book features brightly animated pictures of the main character and depicts he and his family in a charming settin. They enjoy their day engaging in family activities. There is also a crucial element to the book that my son can definately relate to being that he sometimes becomes overworked and wired and is then not mindful of others. William Joyce portrays this one special point carefully as he shows the main character and his family in a happily ever after situation.