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Olivia Kidney #3
Olivia Kidney and the Secret Beneath the City
Olivia Kidney has been through a lot. Being able to communicate with ghosts means never a dull moment—or a normal life. But just when things have calmed down, Olivia’s father insists she enroll at one of the most prestigious arts schools in Manhattan! Yet her school problems take a backseat when Olivia must help her friend Frannie solve an age-old mystery, one that forces her deep underground into the infamous, intricate subway system of New York City. And what awaits her makes ghosts look like child’s play.
Favorite characters return in this wild, funny, completely unforgettable adventure. Olivia Kidney remains one of the freshest heroines in children’s literature.
327 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2007
About the author
Ellen Potter
61 books257 followersEllen Potter is the author of many children's books, including the Olivia Kidney series, Pish Posh, SLOB, and The Kneebone Boy. Her non-fiction book, Spilling Ink; a Young Writer’s Handbook, was co-authored by Anne Mazer
Olivia Kidney was awarded Child magazine’s “Best Children’s Book Award” and was selected as one of the “Books of the Year” by Parenting magazine.
SLOB is on more than 10 state book award lists and was selected for the Junior Library Guild.
Spilling Ink; A Young Writer’s Handbook was a New York Public Library Top 100 Children’s Book for 2010 and a Children’s Literature Assembly 2011 Notable Book.
Her newest series is Piper Green and the Fairy Tree.
Olivia Kidney was awarded Child magazine’s “Best Children’s Book Award” and was selected as one of the “Books of the Year” by Parenting magazine.
SLOB is on more than 10 state book award lists and was selected for the Junior Library Guild.
Spilling Ink; A Young Writer’s Handbook was a New York Public Library Top 100 Children’s Book for 2010 and a Children’s Literature Assembly 2011 Notable Book.
Her newest series is Piper Green and the Fairy Tree.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
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April 21, 2011Elements & style:The characters of the book Olivia Kidney is Olivia Kidney, Frannie, Viola, Mr.Steenpister, Ruben, & Mr. Kidney[dad of Olivia]. The climax of this story is when Olivia & Frannie were chaseing after Mr. Steenpister when he was holding a strange object. The setting of Olivia Kidney is in New York city in a apartment . The probelm in the story is their trying to find what Blup eat to make him tall.
Characteriztion: olivia is a good sized girl a coffee brown hair. she is tweleve. Frannie is her older friend that stoped growing at the age of seven so she is really small she trying to find what made a pitta patta kid grow. Mr. Kidney is Olivia's dad he is a ecspshinal chef. Viola is a cavegirl she is hairy she cat speak that much. Ruben is Olivia's friend,he likes to skate board. Mr. Steenpister is a "crazy" old man who lives in the tunles under New York city he knows how Blup got so big in that short spane of times.
plot: Olivia is a average girl has friends, but the strange thing about her is that she can speak to ghost. she goes to a talent school but she doesn't think that she is good enough for it. her fiend Frannie tells her she is inveited to her moms wedding. her friend is trying to find out what a pitta patta eat to make he grow i such a short time that she raed in her book. the son of the mn who wrote the book is still living [ the dad is not] so shw ask him for the secret & he said he wants to find a study on her friend Viola a real cavegirl. but when Viola goes missing they have to go on a wild gooes chace for a so called dead man [ writer of the book] that his wife a pitta patta person herself that he still alive down in the tuels of a old sub way stastion. when she meats a old ghost friend in the tunel he is baby siting little ghost childern that have benn haunting the so called dead man [Mr. Steenpister] he tells them that there was a nerby trib net to the pitta patta that would wicth to boys out to foul travelers. When she trys to let her ghost friend free by geting the ghost children to go in to the spiret world. & in the end the children go in to the spiret world & branwell [the ghost friend] could leave.
Characteriztion: olivia is a good sized girl a coffee brown hair. she is tweleve. Frannie is her older friend that stoped growing at the age of seven so she is really small she trying to find what made a pitta patta kid grow. Mr. Kidney is Olivia's dad he is a ecspshinal chef. Viola is a cavegirl she is hairy she cat speak that much. Ruben is Olivia's friend,he likes to skate board. Mr. Steenpister is a "crazy" old man who lives in the tunles under New York city he knows how Blup got so big in that short spane of times.
plot: Olivia is a average girl has friends, but the strange thing about her is that she can speak to ghost. she goes to a talent school but she doesn't think that she is good enough for it. her fiend Frannie tells her she is inveited to her moms wedding. her friend is trying to find out what a pitta patta eat to make he grow i such a short time that she raed in her book. the son of the mn who wrote the book is still living [ the dad is not] so shw ask him for the secret & he said he wants to find a study on her friend Viola a real cavegirl. but when Viola goes missing they have to go on a wild gooes chace for a so called dead man [ writer of the book] that his wife a pitta patta person herself that he still alive down in the tuels of a old sub way stastion. when she meats a old ghost friend in the tunel he is baby siting little ghost childern that have benn haunting the so called dead man [Mr. Steenpister] he tells them that there was a nerby trib net to the pitta patta that would wicth to boys out to foul travelers. When she trys to let her ghost friend free by geting the ghost children to go in to the spiret world. & in the end the children go in to the spiret world & branwell [the ghost friend] could leave.
April 16, 2023
I did not realize this was the second book in the series. I had no idea this was even a series. The book certainly didn't let me know. I thought it was just really weird exposition. I was super bored during this, but read it while waiting for a more interesting book to come in. Over and over again, I was missing sorely needed context to understand the characters, plot and world-building. This book assumed -hardcore- that people had read, understood and liked the first one. I had no idea the first one even existed. I felt like I was missing several jokes in this, and many allegories. I was not the intended audience at all. The secret under the city doesn't come into play until halfway through the book or so, when she and her friends resolve to go looking for it. The pacing is terrible. The entire book reads like a fifth grader rushed through their book report homework half an hour before they needed to leave for the school day; the book report being "recapping the first book and folding that information neatly into the second book to bring readers up to speed." Lame. I finished this book, and the interesting one I waited on had not come in yet. Sigh.
September 3, 2018
This book is heavy on weird characters which are mostly interesting, but occasionally just odd and seem there just to move the plot. Olivia, who can talk to and see ghosts, has to deal with being the new girl in a school of arts students- and she figures she has just mediocre talent. He father is a cook for an eccentric man. Who provides training for ghosts and soon to be ghost, in a mansion filled with water. Olivia’s best friend is on a search for a plant to make her grow (she is the size of a 7 year old or so) and they end up deep in the bowels of NYC subway tunnels to find the one man who can tell her more about the plant. Along the way they deal with a Principessa who insults everyone, assassins, a sadistic art teacher, and a seamstress the likes to stick pins in her clients. Fun book written for a younger crowd than Kiki Strike. This one is less realistic and they spend much less time underground.
November 14, 2016
It was pretty slow moving for the full beginning until the very end which I didn't much like, but what I thought was the main idea actually totally turned around which was cool.
January 2, 2018
Read it for a friend who wanted to give it to her granddaughter for Christmas. There are much better books for kids and the plot is weak. The reader is left wondering why the title had under the city as only part of the book had this in.
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September 14, 2026I didn't enjoy it
September 7, 2015
Olivia Kidney by Ellen Potter is a mystery and adventurous book. Olivia Kidney has some rough edges in her life like she can talk to the dead. Her father, George, enrolled her in to a school for prestigious arts schools which she does not want to go to. Olivia has to find Mr. Steenpister who lives in a spooky abandon under ground railroad, and Olivia and her friend Frannie has to find him to get the plant to make frannie taller. . She has a lot of friends in this book and together they go on an amazing adventure.
In my opinion I thought the book was very good. There were some parts in the book that seemed slow, but I understand it was to set up the rest of the book. She meets many friends along the way to help her solve the mystery that everyone who reads it will love. I think the book was very well put in order and there was a setting for each event and you could tell where she was and I felt as the reader, that I was in the same place. In most parts of the book, I was sitting on the edge of my seat to wait for what was going to happen next. I think the book was very interesting!
I would recommend this book to people who like adventures and mysteries. I love these kind of books so I really like reading it. For some people 327 pages seems like a lot but it went by really fast because I kept wanting to read it. This book is more for girls but boys who like girl instead of boys. People under 10 probably shouldn't read it because some parts are over the limits like murdering and things like that. I think many people should read this and go get the book and read it!
In my opinion I thought the book was very good. There were some parts in the book that seemed slow, but I understand it was to set up the rest of the book. She meets many friends along the way to help her solve the mystery that everyone who reads it will love. I think the book was very well put in order and there was a setting for each event and you could tell where she was and I felt as the reader, that I was in the same place. In most parts of the book, I was sitting on the edge of my seat to wait for what was going to happen next. I think the book was very interesting!
I would recommend this book to people who like adventures and mysteries. I love these kind of books so I really like reading it. For some people 327 pages seems like a lot but it went by really fast because I kept wanting to read it. This book is more for girls but boys who like girl instead of boys. People under 10 probably shouldn't read it because some parts are over the limits like murdering and things like that. I think many people should read this and go get the book and read it!
November 7, 2007
This is not a satisfying tale at all -- unlike the very first Olivia Kidney that collect all the threads at the end and the readers are left with the sense of surprising delight at how everything turns out and how everything is interrelated. So much of this tale is just loose threads hanging and then either they get quickly and sloppily "tied up" or they get left hanging -- what's up with the art teacher? He's such an interesting character who seems quite important at the beginning of the story and then just "vanishes" -- actually the entire Art School as a character recedes into the deep background that you forget Olivia actually attends school! The whole "secret beneath the city" didn't really come into play until about 250 pages into the book and it takes up so little space and is so insignificant to the rest of the story, it might as well not be happening underground, or not happening at all. Branwell could be taking care of little ghosts anywhere tragedy had struck! There are still well crafted scenes but alas not enough to make up for all the flaws. Potter is capable of writing very tidy, intelligent, and intriguing tales -- (as evidenced in Pish Posh) -- so I wonder what happened here?
March 24, 2008
Olivia Kidney is being forced to attend a prestigious private school for the arts, and she is none too pleased about it. She had really been looking forward to going to the same school as Ruben—though neither of them would ever admit it.
But as usual, in the life of Olivia Kidney, things don’t stay simple for long. Olivia’s runaway mother is in town, and wants to bond with Olivia over girl talk—issues like boys and bras—which Olivia definitely is not interested in. She had a fight with her big brother Christopher—who happens to be a ghost. Ansel is making trouble with the Exit Board. The Principessa Christina Lilli is getting married, and wants Olivia to be in the wedding—as the Royal Imposter, in case of Royal Assassins. And Frannie is determined to learn the secret of how to make herself grow.
As always, with Olivia, it’s not the plot that really matters. Olivia is just a really likeable character, and it’s always fun to spend time with her. You sort of don’t care what happens in the book—though it’s always good to find out—you just want to keep hanging out with Olivia.
But as usual, in the life of Olivia Kidney, things don’t stay simple for long. Olivia’s runaway mother is in town, and wants to bond with Olivia over girl talk—issues like boys and bras—which Olivia definitely is not interested in. She had a fight with her big brother Christopher—who happens to be a ghost. Ansel is making trouble with the Exit Board. The Principessa Christina Lilli is getting married, and wants Olivia to be in the wedding—as the Royal Imposter, in case of Royal Assassins. And Frannie is determined to learn the secret of how to make herself grow.
As always, with Olivia, it’s not the plot that really matters. Olivia is just a really likeable character, and it’s always fun to spend time with her. You sort of don’t care what happens in the book—though it’s always good to find out—you just want to keep hanging out with Olivia.
May 21, 2015
vBetter than the second one, which was pretty darn good! This one seemed to get almost...serious, for a bit. And that was weird but maybe kind of okay.
In this episode, Olivia enters art school despite her complete lack of talent; tries to help her friend Franny find the secret to growing (Frannie stopped growing at age seven, so now she's a fourteen-year-old mind in a seven-year-old body); looks for a missing spirit; deals with her annoying ghost, Stella; watches Ansel adjust (not) to having a personal attendant after he fills the lagoon with snapping turtles; attempts to avoid her tactless, visiting mother, on a visit from California; and all the while, prepares for the Principessa's wedding.
Sound busy? It is. But some of the pieces fit together in the end.
In this episode, Olivia enters art school despite her complete lack of talent; tries to help her friend Franny find the secret to growing (Frannie stopped growing at age seven, so now she's a fourteen-year-old mind in a seven-year-old body); looks for a missing spirit; deals with her annoying ghost, Stella; watches Ansel adjust (not) to having a personal attendant after he fills the lagoon with snapping turtles; attempts to avoid her tactless, visiting mother, on a visit from California; and all the while, prepares for the Principessa's wedding.
Sound busy? It is. But some of the pieces fit together in the end.
September 13, 2016
The book Olivia Kidney and the Secret Beneath the City by Ellen Potter tells the story about Olivia. She usually moves a lot so she's starting a new school. My favorite character in the book was Olivia. What made her such a great characters was how she to ghosts. I think how she can talk to ghosts is because her brother died. The best part of the book is when Olivia went to the wedding. She danced with one of her friends. What's interesting about this book is that she is trying to help her friend to get taller. She is older than Olivia, but she's as tall as a seven year old. Overall, I thought the book was amazing because I got so in to it that I couldn't stop read the book. I just wanted to get to the end. You should read the book because it's very good and interesting thing to learn.
August 3, 2024
Olivia Kidney has to go to an art school which is full of pretentious art bullies. The dancers are on top and the weird artists are outcasts. You would expect the weird artists to be pretentious gatekeepers, meaning the dancers are only on top because they held onto that position by force.
Olivia gets involved in a mystery with ghosts. It is very fascinating, with a lot of recurring characters from the first books appearing again. I especially like the Princess of Babatavia and Olivia’s ghost brother. Mostly, this book just made me sad that there weren’t any other Olivia Kidney books, and that this was the last in the series.
Olivia gets involved in a mystery with ghosts. It is very fascinating, with a lot of recurring characters from the first books appearing again. I especially like the Princess of Babatavia and Olivia’s ghost brother. Mostly, this book just made me sad that there weren’t any other Olivia Kidney books, and that this was the last in the series.
October 30, 2008
The third in this series finds Olivia starting a new school (for talented kids--she feels out of place) and enduring an unhappy visit from her mother, who lives in California. Without spoilers, it's hard to talk about the complexities of Olivia's life, but it looks like she and her father will be again losing their home. Meanwhile, she joins her very small friend Frannie, who is searching for a botanist who may have the cure for her lack of growth. Unfortunately, he's now a madman who lives in the subway tunnels of New York City.
August 25, 2015
I'm far from the target audience, but enjoy a lot of middle-readers and YA books. For me, this one started out OK but got too silly with childish characters and made-up animals -- and even worse, made-up human cultures that were not treated very well (I'm also an anthropologist). For better rendered traditional/indigenous cultures one might try the "Wolf Brother" series by Michelle Paver (the setting and tone of that series are quite different, but the cultures are respectfully rendered).
March 1, 2008
I enjoyed it very much! It's very funny. I wouldn't recommend this to some one who is looking for a mature read. It's about a girl who basically talks to ghosts. It's not scary because she only talks to the "friendly" ghosts, including her brother. I had a good time and I think you would too.
July 3, 2011
Readers in Manhattan might enjoy this book. I no longer live there, so I'm afraid I gave up when too many characters started competing for my attention. None of them seemed endearing to me & so the trail went cold. It's a shame because Potter obviously writes well.
August 28, 2007
but why no peter reynolds illustrations? why?
May 28, 2008
Another of my daughter's favorites!
July 31, 2008
It was a really good mystery book that you want to red over and over agian!!
February 17, 2009
A good third book to the Olivia Kidney adventures. Unique but with almost too many loose ends to tie up. They are all tied up, but it's a lot going on. But entertaining.
April 29, 2009
Again another great read.
June 1, 2009
My favorite ongoing middle grade series.
December 8, 2009
as i read along happily, i find out Olivia is a straddler! (you will find out what that means later in the book). please read this book.
December 15, 2009
Best Olivia Kidney book. I would love to know what happens to her in her next adventure - I hope Ellen Potter writes more.
February 2, 2010
♥♥It's okay... I mean I only like it at the last part.
November 4, 2010
I ended up not finishing the book. This book was too childish and made no sense. This book also got boring for me because I wasn't into all of the made up animals and such.
November 17, 2010
Silly, fun & different. 9-12ish
February 14, 2011
less pathos than the first two-- but significantly sharper humor and a more complex plot make this equal to the first and much better than the second.
May 10, 2011
Good writing and character. Liking the paranormal aspect that's refreshingly understated.
July 2, 2011
Its SSSSOOOOOOOOO AAAAAAWWWSSSSOOMMMEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews