Olga and the Smelly Thing from Nowhere

My 7 year old first word after reading this book was 'I want to read it again' and it is now in her book bag to bring with her in to school.

My kids loved this, both said it was fun to read!

My daughter loved this book, she is 9. At first she dismissed due to the cover! So it was a classical " do not judge the book by its cover" moment.She thought it was funny she liked the layout with pictures and speech bubbles.

This book is being blurbed as a funsy-sciencey book about a dorky science girl. That's generally true, but it seems to me that there's a lot more, (and more interesting), stuff going on than just that. Olga is more prickly, the adults are more slyly needled, and throwaway lines are edgier than I expected. All of that is fine by me because I think kid readers are a lot quicker on the uptake than some purely poop/fart books give them credit for.Here, we open with Olga going on at length about how annoying humans are compared to animals. It becomes clear that Olga doesn't have any friends and has minimal social skills. She isn't all adorable charm and spunk. She's sort of grumpy and judgmental. When you consider that the mystery creature's only comment on things is "meh" you can see what I mean about an odd and quirky vibe. If the book had stayed on this grumpy key I might have tired of it. But, once the olgamus shows up Olga has to go out into the world, and with that both she and the book open up.Olga's research leads her to the library and then a neighborhood store, (for Olgamus food). Both the librarian and the shopkeeper are unusual adults for a kids book. The tattooed librarian is sort of a whack job and the pink-shirted cowboy-booted free spirit shopkeeper is pretty unique and quirky himself; there are a number of sly little observations about both that might be lost on younger readers but add a little zip to the story.Throughout we get a lot of sight gags and funny little bits drawn around the margins. (Things like a list of the weird products in the shop, or drawings of real weird creatures, and so on.) We also get a mean girl revelation. Olga doesn't like the sisters who live next door, who feel like mean self-obsessed cliches. But they take on a larger role as the book progresses, and offer up a few good surprises by the end. Indeed, by the end of the book everyone seems to have moved up a bit on the charm and appeal scale, and Olga seems to have grown more than any of them. We end up with a much more appealing, interesting and flexible Olga than we started with.So, it's funny, it's sciencey, it is as advertised. But there's also some larger message being teased out in the background, which adds a level of interest and appeal beyond just a cute-goofy animal tale. That made this overall an especially interesting and satisfying find.(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

Fun, imaginative and entertaining for young readers!

She's a fan of Dav Pilkey and adores his books. I was looking for something from a woman writer and artist. This book did not disappoint. It's exactly what my daughter loves and I love sharing that with her.

Très bien et drôle... mais pour ma fille francophone de 5 and c’est encore un peu difficile. Je passe des passages car c’est trop long pour elle en anglais. Dans le même style je vous recommande avant de prendre I want a Monster, les dessins et l’humour sont similaires mais plus accessibles pour les petits.

After more than one year of having this, my daughter still enjoy reading it.

Bought to encourage my kid to read during summer break - they loved it - I often heard them laughing out loud and sharing the best parts with me.