By Bob Minzesheimer, USA TODAY
Olivia, the bossy, headstrong yet charming pig with a passion for fashion and ballet, will have something new to rant about.
The 11th book in Ian Falconer's best-selling picture book series, Olivia and the Fairy Princesses, will be released next fall (2012), publisher Simon & Schuster announced today.
Falconer, in an interview, didn't want to give away too much of the plot, but did say, "Olivia is not one of the fairy princesses."
In fact, he added, the book will feature a rant by Olivia "against the girly Barbie doll culture that so many young girls seem to be gravitating to these days."
Falconer, 52, is a theatrical set and costume designer who also draws covers for The New Yorker magazine. His first book, Olivia (2000), grew out of a Christmas gift that he drew three years earlier for his real-life niece, Olivia Crane.
Even at 3, Falconer told USA TODAY in a 2003 interview, "the real Olivia could argue, stonewall, bulldoze or filibuster her way through any inconvenience to achieve her goal. And always in the nicest way."
The real-life Olivia is now in college, he reports.
And Olivia, a pig who shows no signs of aging, "has evolved into a person who's even more complicated than my niece."
