Katherine Pierpont tells of the creation and development of the popular children's book, "Olivia Forms a Band," by author/illustrator Ian Falconer. In this story, Olivia, a pig, and her mother, father , and brothers are off to have a picnic and see fireworks. Olivia insists that if there are fireworks, there must be a band, even if she must comprise the whole band herself because her family does not want to play along. Her mother voices skepticism about one person being a whole band, to which Olivia responds, "But Mommy, this morning you told me I sounded like five people." This book began as a thoughtful Christmas present for his 12-year-old niece, also named Olivia. Ian Falconer surmises it takes him about six months to write and illustrate a book, not accounting for subsequent tweaking, before it goes to print. He is aware and respectful of how much kids pick up on and that they "get" the undercurrent of of sly, sophisticated humor just fine. He says that it was appropriate to make Olivia be a pig because "piglets have big heads the way little kids have big heads. Plus, they're such intelligent animals."